Potter and Black: The Order of the Phoenix
by ArabellaBlack25
Summary: Harry, Ron, Hermione and Arabella are back for their fifth year. How are they going to deal with Hogwarts when a toad-faced witch becomes a teacher? Secrets will be revealed as well as hidden relationships.
1. Strangers

**We are at the fifth book! Hope you like! I'm sorta nervous about this one. Anyway, the beginning of this chapter is a bit boring-ish (well, to me it is), but towards the end, this get a little bit interesting. And I cannot wait for the next chapter! Hope you like it!**

**disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, just Arabella and her story.**

Strangers

'Here,' said Remus, giving her a piece of parchment. 'Read it quickly and memorize it.'

Arabella looked down at the piece of paper. It said:

_The Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix may be found at number twelve, Grimmauld Place, London. _

'What's the Order of the -?' Arabella began.

'Not now,' whispered Remus, looking around them.

He pulled the parchment out of Arabella's hand and set it on fire using the tip of his wand. Arabella looked around at the houses. She remembered that there was another one between number thirteen and number eleven.

'Wasn't the house right -?'

'Think about what you just read,' said Remus.

Arabella thought about it, and no sooner, a battered door emerged out of nowhere between numbers eleven and thirteen followed by dirty walls and grimy windows. Number twelve Grimmauld Place just suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

'Come on,' said Remus, holding on to her truck and Shay. 'Someone wants to see you.'

Arabella walked up the stone steps slowly and carefully as she was using her clutches and her arm was still wrapped in a cast. Remus pulled out his wand and tapped the door once. The door creaked open.

'Get in quick, Arabella,' said Remus.

Arabella stepped over the threshold carefully. Remus followed in soon after with her truck and Shay, and closed the door.

'I really hate this place,' muttered Arabella.

'Me, too,' came a voice from the staircase.

Someone was descending down the stairs very quickly. Arabella smiled when she saw that it was Sirius Black, wanted murdered and her father.

'Arabella,' he said, smiling, and opening his arms at her.

'You could walk towards her, Sirius,' said Remus, smiling. 'Her ankle still needs to heal, you know.'

'Right,' said Sirius, shaking his head. 'How stupid of me.'

He walked the short distance to Arabella and pulled her into one big hug. She tried to return it as best as she could, but there was a broken arm in the way.

'How are you?' asked Sirius, still hugging her.

'As best as I can be,' said Arabella.

They stayed like this for a while. Remus went upstairs to put her trunk and Shay away.

'Well, this place has gone into the dumps,' said Arabella, when they let go of each other.

'Kreacher hasn't done much,' said Sirius. 'Want a tour?'

'God no,' said Arabella, shaking her head.

'Let go to your room,' said Sirius, walking towards the staircase.

'I do not want to go there,' said Arabella, shaking her head. 'I hate that room.'

'Come on,' said Sirius, smiling. 'Me and Moony redecorated it. Got rid of anything my mother touched in there.'

'Fine,' said Arabella reluctantly.

Together, they walked up the stairs to the top floor slowly. She ignored everything in the house, especially the wall with the mounted house-elves on them and the portrait with the curtains on them. The house was dark and depressing, and she hated spending her time in here.

'Here we go,' said Sirius, as they reached the top of the landing. 'Your new and improved room.'

The plaque in front of the door read: _Arabella Kassandra Black_ in gold letters.

'Nice touch,' said Arabella, pointing at her name.

'Thank you,' said Sirius, bowing a bit. 'It was my idea.'

Arabella opened the door, expecting the worse, and was slightly taken back. She was expecting dark green walls with snakes on them; an enormous bed with black coverings; clippings of Voldemort on one side of the wall and pictures of Death Eaters. She expected Walburga's horrible decorations, but was ecstatic with the new decorations. The walls were painted in a nice rich blue colour, and there was one normal size bed with nice brown covers. There were no clippings of Voldemort or Death Eaters, but posters of The Beatles, Frank Sinatra and a Triumph Bonneville T120. There was also a nice big mahogany chest drawer at the corner of the room. Shay was near the window, hooting. This was by far the brightest place in the whole room.

'We thought that if Hermione and Ginny come and visit, we can just bring in some of the other beds in here. There's certainly enough room,' said Sirius, looking around. 'You like it?'

'I love it,' said Arabella, smiling. 'Thank you.'

She gave him a big hug.

'No problem,' said Sirius, smiling and rubbing her back a bit. 'Moony helped, you know.'

'Yes, I did,' said Remus, entering the room.

'Thank you, Moony,' said Arabella, letting go of Sirius and hugging Remus.

'Okay, well Nymphadora is coming over soon,' said Sirius. 'She wants to see us, and she'll help you unpack your… stuff.'

'He's uncomfortable saying clothes,' said Remus, smiling at Arabella. 'He keeps thinking about your _other_ types of clothes.'

'Really?' said Arabella, smiling wickedly.

'Let's not get into this conversation again,' said Sirius, looking uncomfortable.

'This natural for a girl to have –'began Remus, who enjoyed torturing his friend like this.

'I'm not listening!' said Sirius, leaving the room quickly.

'Why don't you look around, Nymph should be here soon,' said Remus, kissing her forehead before following Sirius out the door.

Arabella chuckled before looking at her room again. It definitely made the whole house seem better. She could get used to living here.

* * *

'I heard you need my help, oh broken one,' said a voice from the door.

Arabella turned around from her trunk and saw that it was Nymphadora Tonks, her clumsy cousin. She had her hair short today in a bubble-gum pink colour. She was holding a plate of sandwiches and two bottles of butterbear.

'Remus made these for us,' said Nymph, walking towards her. 'Thought we could eat and work at the same time.'

'I really just need to put my clothes away,' said Arabella. 'The rest I just have to figure out if I want to throw it or not.'

'Here, let me,' said Nymph, taking out her wand and pointing it at Arabella's clothes in the trunk. 'Wingardium Leviosa!'

Arabella's clothes levitated into the air as Nymph brought them closer towards the drawers and dropped them inside.

'That's very untidy,' commented Arabella.

'They're in there, aren't they?' said Nymph. 'And since when do you care about neatness?'

'I don't,' said Arabella, shrugging.

'Anyway, let's take a break. I'm beat.'

'You barely did anything!'

'I put _all _your clothes away,' said Nymph, exasperatedly, 'didn't I?'

'Fine,' said Arabella, pursing her lips into a thin line. 'Take a break, I'll sort out the other stuff.'

Arabella sorted out her other things with Nymph sitting beside her, doing nothing but eat, drink butterbear, and make comments.

'Is this for me?' asked Nymph, picking up one of the Irish scarfs from her trunk.

'No,' said Arabella, taking it away from her. 'This is for Moony and the other one is for Padfoot.'

'Fine,' said Nymph, pouting. 'I get it, you don't like me.'

'Not at this moment, no,' said Arabella, smiling at her.

'Okay, fine, let's get through these other stuff,' said Nymph, rolling her eyes and sorting out the rest of Arabella's things.

'Charms – Transfiguration – Potions – Charms, again – Divination!' said Nymph, looking shocked. 'You took that class? With Trelawney?'

'Yeah,' said Arabella, shrugging. 'She's a phoney.'

'I know,' said Nymph. 'I took her for one year and then dropped out. Kept telling me that I was in grave danger of fur balls.'

'She keeps saying random numbers to me,' said Arabella. 'Last year was six, this year was eight.'

'Know what they mean?'

'Ron thought it was the number of kids I was going to have?'

'Eight? Really? Wow. You and your husband are going to be pretty busy,' teased Nymph.

'It's not going to happen,' said Arabella, rolling her eyes.

'You never know,' said Nymph. 'You've got to name one of them after me.'

'And if they're all boys?'

'Highly unlikely,' said Nymph. 'One of them has got to be a girl.'

'Fine, fine, I'll name my kid after you,' said Arabella sarcastically, rolling her eyes, 'if, and only if, you name me the godmother of your first born.'

'Deal,' said Nymph, spitting into her right hand and sticking it out.

'I'm not shaking that hand,' said Arabella, looking disgusted.

'Fine,' said Nymph, rolling her eyes. 'But we still have our deal, right?'

'Right.'

* * *

The next week flew by slowly for Arabella. She managed to get her cast off and wasn't using her clutches any more, but still walked with a little limp. She spent most of her time in her room, trying to come up with a new invention, but was having a difficult time.

There was a knock on the door and Sirius's head popped from the door.

'Hey, you need anything?' he asked.

'No, I'm fine,' said Arabella, sitting on the ground.

'Whatcha got there?' he said, entering the room and taking a seat next to her.

She was holding her little book of pranks and inventions Hermione and Ron gave her for her birthday. So far, she wrote every single one of her pranks and inventions in there and was in the middle of thinking up one.

'A book of all my pranks and inventions,' said Arabella, passing the book to her.

Sirius flipped through the book, looking interested and excited.

'You know,' said Sirius, looking at the colour skin potion, 'you change the plant here from a blue flower to a red one, it will change the colour of the person's skin.'

'Yeah, I know,' said Arabella, smiling. 'Fred and George figured it out. They pretty much added all the colour of different flowers and made Nikola look like a rainbow.'

'Nikola?' asked Sirius. 'Isn't he the guy that -?'

'Yup,' said Arabella.

'Do you want to talk ab -?'

'No,' said Arabella sharply. 'I don't want to talk about any of it.'

All week Remus, Sirius and Nymph (whenever she comes over) has been trying to ask whether or not Arabella wanted to talk about what happened in the graveyard. She refused each time and locked herself in her room; not allowing anyone to come in if that was going to be their topic of conversation.

'Are you su -?'

'Yes, I'm sure,' snapped Arabella.

Sirius opened his mouth to say something, but decided against it and went back to the book. Arabella felt bad that she wasn't spending enough time with him over the last week, but everybody wanted her to talk about the incident, and she didn't want to. She pretty much locked him and Remus out of her room.

'I'm sorry,' mumbled Arabella.

'It's okay,' Sirius reassured her, putting his left arm around her shoulders. 'I get it.'

Sirius continued to flip through the book, looking at each of her ideas.

'What about this one? How come you labeled it as 'Not Bloody Likely'?' he asked.

'Because it's impossible to do,' said Arabella.

'Not really,' said Sirius, taking the pencil from her hand. 'If you just _not _use maple syrup, wherever that came from, and use nail polish remover, then it could work.'

'But what about that part?' said Arabella, pointing at the book.

'What about it?' said Sirius.

'It can't work!' said Arabella.

'Yes it can!' insisted Sirius. 'Just use nail polish remover. Trust me, it will work.'

'Fine,' said Arabella stubbornly. 'Moony!'

'Yes,' said Remus, walking into the room, dressed up.

'Going somewhere?' asked Arabella.

'Yeah, going grocery shopping. We need more food,' said Remus.

'Can I come? I need nail polish remover,' said Arabella.

'What?' asked Remus, looking confused. 'Why do you need nail polish for?'

Sirius handed him the book, and Remus immediately understood.

'You could also us lipstick, you know,' said Remus, looking at the ingredients, 'and _not_ chili powder. Where did that come from?

'Are we going or not?' asked Arabella, irritated.

'Yeah, just get dressed and we'll go,' said Remus.

Remus and Sirius left her room as Arabella got dressed. She changed out of her pyjamas and dressed in jeans, over-sized orange sweatshirt and sneakers. She left her room and went downstairs to the door where Remus was waiting for her.

'I thought we could get your stuff first then get some food,' said Remus.

'Okay,' said Arabella, nodding. 'Let's go.'

* * *

'I hate grocery shopping,' moaned Arabella, pushing the trolley miserably.

'You hate everything,' said Remus, amused.

'Yes, I do,' said Arabella.

'Fine,' said Remus, sighing. 'Why don't you go and get some eggs? Do something besides complain.'

'Yeah, yeah,' said Arabella, patting his arm, 'I'll be back.'

Arabella walked over three aisles, regretting ever going with Remus grocery shopping. She stood in front of the different types of eggs, bored out of her mind.

'Why are they priced so differently?' asked Arabella quietly. 'They're eggs, what's so different?'

She stood there, pondering which eggs to buy. Not noticing the person watching her at the end of the aisle.

'Arabella!' yelled that person. 'Arabella!'

'Coming Moony!' said Arabella, not turning around to see who it was.

She kept looking at the eggs, and only removed her eyes when someone grabbed her arms painfully. It was an old man who was dressed in an oversized knitted sweater, sweatpants and sandals with socks. He had long, untamed white hair with blue eyes that twinkled with madness.

'Arabella, my dear,' he said, hysterically. 'It's so good to see you again. Where have you been? Why haven't you visited me in such a long time? You're mother has been worried.'

'Who are you? What are you talking about?' said Arabella, trying to free herself from his grasp, but he was strong for a man his age.

'Ara!' said a voice from the other end of the aisle. It was Remus. He was walked very quickly towards them, looking angry at the man. He suddenly slowed down when he got a clear picture of the stranger. The colour seemed to have drained from Remus's face.

'Abel,' Remus said quietly.

'You!' the man exclaimed, pointing a finger at Remus. 'This is all your fault! You took my Arabella away from me! If it wasn't for you and _that girl_!' He spat out venomously. He was crushing Arabella's arm with his strength.

'Listen to me Abel,' said Remus cautiously. 'This is not your Arabella. Now, please let go of her.'

'I will not!' shouted the man, gathering unwanted attention from other customers, including one in a nurse's outfit, who came rushing towards them. 'Don't you tell me what to do, Lupin! This is entirely your fault! I'm taking back my Arabella!'

'Mr Torell!' gasped the lady in the nurse's outfit, prying the man's hand away from Arabella. 'Behave yourself! You are in public!'

She then turned to Remus and Arabella, looking a bit ashamed. Torell was looking around the ground, waving his arms around, muttering under his breath.

'I'm so sorry,' she said gently. 'He hasn't been out of the house in a very long time. I turned around just for a minute and he just disappeared. I'm really sorry.'

'It's fine,' said Remus, but his voice suggested otherwise. 'Just keep him away from us.'

'Yes,' said the lady apologetically. 'I'm sorry.'

The lady grabbed Torell's hand and pulled him out of the store. People all around them kept staring at them shamelessly.

'Arabella! Arabella!' the man kept screaming, even after they left the store.

Wordlessly, Remus and Arabella paid for the food that was already in the cart and headed back to Grimmauld Place. Arabella didn't say anything; she was still in shock about what happened. Some random stranger came up to her and he knew her name. It freaked her out.

Remus opened the door and they entered silently. Sirius was already there, waiting for them. He was holding a wooden chest box that was slightly bigger than both of his hands.

'You guys are back early,' he commented.

'Ran into someone,' said Remus.

'Anyone I know?' asked Sirius.

'Abel Torell,' said Remus.

Sirius's eyes widened in shock.

'Oh,' he said, looking uncomfortable. 'Yes, well… okay…'

'Who is Abel?' asked Arabella.

'Why don't we all –' began Sirius.

'No! You're going to tell me right now!' snapped Arabella. 'Who's Abel? Who's Isaak? Who's Arry? What's going on? I want to know the truth, and don't lie to me!'

They were all standing next to the door, all looking at each other. Remus and Arabella were still holding their grocery bags. Remus and Sirius were giving each other uncomfortable looks, as though they were debating something to each other mentally. Arabella was watching the two of them with a furious expression on her face.

'How about I put all the food away,' said Remus, taking the grocery bag away from her, 'and Sirius will show you something.'

Arabella stood there glaring as Remus went to the kitchen with the food.

'Let's go upstairs,' said Sirius, motioning towards the stairs.

Reluctantly, Arabella followed him up that stairs to her room. Once they entered the room, he set the chest box on her bed. He had already been here before as there was a pensive next to her bedside table.

'This should be able to explain everything to you,' said Sirius, looking conflicted. 'Remus found it in the house when he was looking for the dress. Um… Kassandra made it for you, thinking that she wasn't going to be able to survive the war. She wanted to give you something to remember her by. You just have to tap your wand to it and say your full name clearly, it should open. I brought the pensive here just in case. I think Kas put some of her memories in a bottle. So… yeah… I'll just… leave you to it then.'

Sirius clapped her on her shoulders and left the room very quickly. Arabella looked at the wooden chest box. It was a nice looking chest box; it had golden handle with swirls of design all over it. At the top it had _AKB_ in cursive with two dogs curled up beside each other.

Arabella drew out her wand from her back pocket, tapped her name twice and said, 'Arabella Kassandra Black.'

The top of the box creaked open and Arabella opened it all the way. There were pictures, bottles with a blue-slivery liquid inside them, some dried up flowers, and a big envelop inside.

Arabella took out the envelope and opened it. Out came a stack of papers. On the front read _Kassandra Aminta Anastas. _The next page read:

_To my daughter Arabella, who I love very much, I leave this to you. In here, you will find out everything about my life. The good, the bad, and the ugly. All my secrets, you will learn. But no matter what you find in here, I did it all for a reason, and I hope you understand that. _

_Love, Mom _

Arabella flipped to the next page and began to read.

**Thank you for reading! If you don't like it, trust me, next chapter will be better. **


	2. Kassandra Aminta Anastas Part I

**disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, just Arabella. Hope you like it! Next part will also focus on Kassandra. Everything in this chapter is from Kassandra's POV. **

Kassandra Aminta Anastas Part I

_I'm going to start from the beginning, so bear with me on this. Also, I really hate writing for a long time. I don't know how I got through all those written exams, they were torture. Sitting down, writing for two hours? No thank you. If everything doesn't seem to be in order, just go with it. This is how my mind practically works. All jumbled up. _

_I was born to Isaak Anastas and Hekabe Christos, both Greek and half-bloods. They've known each other since they were both in Hogwarts, Isaak being in Gryffindor while Hekabe was in Ravenclaw. They were best friends, but they never got married, so they never had any romantic feelings towards each other. One night, they had one too many drinks, and nine months later, I was born! _

_I looked exactly like my mother, except for my father's eyes. My father had sandy brown-blonde hair that reached a little passed his ears with these warm dark brown eyes. He always looked good for his age, barely any wrinkles or sagging skin. He was pretty much a stud, even in his old age. My mother looked exactly like me, but had light hazel eyes. She also looked good for her age, but gained some weight from pregnancies that never went away. _

_They never had any romantic feelings towards each other, but still had me, and tried to make it work. I lived with my mother while my father lived a couple blocks away from us. Every weekend I would stay at his house to get away from my stepfather, Abel Torell. _

_I loved my mother very much, but she can be pretty stupid at times. Her biggest mistake was marrying Abel barely a year after I was born. Abel never hit me or did any physical or mental damage to me, but always reminded me that I was my mother's drunken mistake, and took great joy in that. I think it irked him that Hekabe was with Isaak before him, and I was the living proof of that. _

_I hated him so much, but never said anything because Hekabe was in love with him, and they had a child together. So there was no way convincing her into leaving him after that. November 11, 1961 was the day my little sister, Arabella Antheia Torell was born, and I loved her with all my heart. She looked exactly like me and Hekabe, except for her eyes. She had Abel's blue eyes. It looked better on her than it did on him. _

_Me, Hekabe, Isaak, and Arabella were all wizards, the only person that wasn't was Abel, and I was quite happy to point this put to him every chance I got. He was quite happy when I got my letter to Hogwarts; ecstatic to finally get me out of the house for more than two days. He got really jealous when Arabella also got her letter to Hogwarts two years later. I liked to point out all these things to him. _

_There were two people in my life at that time that I truly loved. One being Arabella, my sweet little sister, and the other being my father, Isaak, someone who I both loved and respected with all my heart. I spent every weekend with my father, and I enjoyed every bit of it. We did all sorts of things together. He took me to the beach, he took me to the carnival, everything. Sometimes, Arabella would come along with us. She told me that she preferred Isaak to Abel once, and I rejoiced. I didn't say anything to Abel, I'm not that cruel. Isaak liked Arabella, always treated her like she was his own flesh and blood. _

_Isaak took me to Diagon Alley for the first time to get my wand, and bought me an owl. I named her Kuria, it means lady. Abel cursed me and Isaak for Kuria because she always managed to annoy him. I was very proud of her. _

_Flash forward a bit. I was finally heading off to Hogwarts. On the train was where I met my best friends, Lily Evans and Remus Lupin. I also met James Potter and Sirius Black, your father, on the train too. I got along with James, but not that much with your father. Actually, we almost hated each other, but I get more into that later. Moving on, I spent most of my time on the train with Remus, just talking about random things, like what houses we wanted to be sorted in, different types of candy, you know kid stuff. That was the moment I knew we were going to be great friends. _

_So, we finally arrived at Hogwarts and the castle took my breath away, literally. It was so beautiful and magnificent. I was sorted into Gryffindor, just like my father. Remus, Lily, James and Sirius were also sorted into Gryffindor. _

_I had a lot of fun times at Hogwarts. I made other friends, like Alice Smith, Frank Longbottom, and Fabian and Gideon Prewett. I was also friends with Peter Pettigrew, but at that time, he was more of Sirius's friend than mine._

_Me, Fabian and Gideon were all pranksters. We had our own little group while Remus, James, Sirius and Peter had theirs. Sometimes, we would have little prank wars between the seven of us. Once in a while Alice, Frank or Lily would join in. McGonagall always got mad at us for the damage we did to the castle, none that couldn't be repaired of course. Dumbledore didn't seem to mind that much. I think he was always amused to see what we might do next. _

_Anyway, two years later, during my third year, Arabella was finally coming to Hogwarts. The best part was her being sorted into Gryffindor. I was proud and happy of her. She got along well with everyone, even Sirius and this was the time we really hated each other. Arabella was friends with everyone, but was smitten with Remus. If you ask him now he'll deny anything that went on between the two of them, don't listen to him. There was definitely something going on between them, nobody found out until our sixth year. _

_Like I said before, your father and I didn't get along very much. Don't know how it happened, but we just didn't get along. We pulled pranks at each other, insulted each other, did things and said things that we wouldn't be able to take back, ever. Everyone tried to get us to be civil towards each other, but nothing worked. Then during our fifth year something happened. In the beginning of the year, I insulted his family and for the first time, he had nothing to say back to me. He just glared and left the room. It was James who told me what happened between him and his family. Sirius had a big fight with his family and left the house. His mother blasted him off the family tree and was disowned by both of his parents. For the first time in five years since I've known him, I felt bad for Sirius. _

_After I apologized to him, we started being civil towards each other, and that later grew into genuine friendship. Instead of pranking each other, we pranked other people. It was nice. We talked about any and almost everything. _

_Sirius asked me out during our sixth year. He did it in this sort of laid back, elegant sort of way that seemed to come naturally towards him, but I knew he was actually nervous about my answer. You really get to know a person after years of hating him, and a year of liking him. I said yes, and never regretted it. _

_The date was horrible, it was a disaster. The weather was horrible, it kept raining. Three Broomsticks was packed. Arabella, Remus, James and Peter kept showing up and interrupting up. I could tell by the end of it, he was kicking himself. He tried his best, but it was a horrible date. At the end of the day, I kissed him. The look in his face was priceless. We've been together ever since. _

_As I said before, Arabella and Remus were really close together. We all thought that they were just friends, but it turned out that they were something more. Me and James accidently caught them together making out one time. Their faces were so red, and for the first time, Arabella had nothing to say to us. Me and James always found a way to tease them for that. _

_Abel never liked Sirius or Remus or any of my friends. He always found a way to insult them whenever we had a date. It just added more fun in mine and Sirius's relationship. Hekabe liked Remus, but wasn't really sure of Sirius. Isaak liked them both very much. Isaak got along with all my friends. He always joked around with them and they liked him. Nobody liked Abel, some liked Hekabe, and everyone loved Isaak. _

_That was also the year when Alice and Frank started going out. We all saw that coming, to be honest. It was just a matter of time before Lily finally said yes to James. Poor guy, always got rejected by the girl of his dreams. He tried to brush off every rejection as though it was nothing, but it always ate him up inside. He finally stopped hexing people randomly in our final year and it was Lily who asked him out! We were all there at the time, and were shocked. Our mouths dropped to the floor when she did that. The person that was the most shocked was James. He did this sort of victory dance when she left the room. It looked weird. _

_During our fifth year was the time when Voldemort started to rise to power. In the beginning, nobody knew who he was, or why he was doing all these damages. He was just starting to make a name of himself. That year we just started to learn of his so-called 'mission' and way of life. Soon after, people started calling him 'You-Know-Who', which is a really stupid name. _

_After me, Lily, Sirius, Remus, James, Peter, Alice, Frank, Fabian and Gibeon finally finished Hogwarts, Dumbledore asked us if we wanted to join his secret society called The Order of the Phoenix. We opposed everything Voldemort and his followers, Death Eaters, stood up for. The ten of us agreed and immediately became members. What I didn't know at that time was that Isaak was already a member. Apparently Dumbledore taught Isaak when he was at Hogwarts and immediately recruited him. Isaak opposed Voldemort's ways and was not quiet about it. Every chance he got, he managed to show and prove that what Voldemort was fighting for was wrong. I admired his bravery, but was scared for him. _

_We were somewhat happy when we joined. We fought for what we believed, but we also had jobs at the time. Me, Sirius, James, Alice, Frank, Fabian and Gibeon became Aurors, trained by Moody himself. Lily went to St. Mungo's to become a Healer. Remus had a harder time trying to find a job in the wizarding world because he was a werewolf, but found one in the Muggle community. We fought and worked at the same time. _

_As soon as we left Hogwarts, me and Sirius bought a house in Godric's Hollow together and moved in. Lily and James also lived in Godric's Hollow. Couple months after we moved in, Sirius proposed. It wasn't really romantic, it was really simple. We had a little get together with all our friends, and he just sort of popped the question. He was so nervous. I never saw him shake like that. He was more than revealed when I said yes. _

_We got married on February 1__st__, 1978. We were both really young, but nobody knew how long they were going to live back then. We found a way for Arabella to attend the wedding even though she was still at Hogwarts. She and Lily were my maid of honors while Remus and James were Sirius's groomsmen. It was really simple, just really close friends and family. I was excited and nervous that whole time, but I knew we made the right decision in the end. _

_A year later, James and Lily got married. Same deal, except Alice was the maid of honor with me. And a couple months after that, Frank and Alice got married. _

_Arabella didn't become a member of the Order until she finished Hogwarts, two years after us. She was happy for two reasons. One, she fought for what she believed, and two, she was practically with Remus that whole time. _

_It was the best of times, it was the worst of time. We all had high hopes of the outcome of the war. We just wanted peace and quiet at the end of the day. _

_And then it all went wrong. _

_Arabella was the first one of us to die. _

_August 6__th__, 1978. I never forgot that day. _

_Death Eaters were terrorizing Diagon Alley during that day. They were showing their support towards Voldemort, showing that they were worthy to be one of his followers. By the time we got there, all hell broke loose. Buildings were on fire, people running all over the place, women and children crying. We tried our best to calm everything down, but it was too late. We all fought and stood our ground, but we were outnumbered. I was fighting Rabastan Lestrange at the time. I was so caught up with the duel that I didn't notice what was going on with Arabella. She was fighting Antonin Dolohov, and he got the better of her. Killing Curse straight to the chest. _

_By that time the Death Eaters all started to Apparate away. We tried to round them all, but they slipped through our fingers. _

_Everything hurt after that. Nothing was the same. Every time someone mentioned her, I couldn't stand being in the same room, I would just burst into tears; Sirius and James always got mad and looked like they just wanted to strangle someone. Remus was the only other one that took it just as hard as I did. For the first couple months, he became distant. He quit his job and just stayed at home, doing absolutely nothing. I think at that point, he was just waiting for the full moon to come. He sort of embraced it. Sirius and James managed to somewhat snap him out of it. He started to live with me and Sirius for a couple months before he got back on his feet. Things started to become easier. But nobody ever mentioned her again. It was just too painful. That sort of pain, losing someone who gave their life fighting for what they believed, for who they believed, it just doesn't go away. She was my little sister and I couldn't even talk about her without crying. _

_The worst part was telling Hekabe and Abel. Abel started to become crazy. He just didn't believe us. Arabella's death didn't register through to him. Hekabe was depressed, she wasn't herself after that day. It was hard for her, losing her youngest. She never got over it. _

_We buried her in the cemetery at Godric's Hollow. It felt nice, sort of having her close to me in a way. _

_After losing Arabella, I promised myself that I would get revenge. Not just on Dolohov, but revenge on all Death Eaters and Voldemort, the person that started all of this. In the end, it all goes back to him. _

_I asked Dumbledore, Moody and Isaak if there was something I could do, something to make the war end sooner and for all the pain to go away. They had this plan, a plan for someone to become a Death Eater and get closer to Voldemort. All I had to do was get in with the Death Eaters, find a way to become their friend (or something close to that), prove that I believed in what they fought for and gain their trust. Once I befriended one of the Death Eaters, I had to get close to Voldemort, gain his trust and prove that I was one of them. I was a spy on Voldemort's side, while a spy on Dumbledore's side, but my true loyalties lay with the Order and revenge. Revenge for my sister. _

_Isaak opposed me doing this mission, but I eventually worn him down and he agreed, rather reluctantly though. Remus, Lily and James fought against me doing the mission, but later understood that I was doing it for Arabella. Sirius was furious with me. He thought that I didn't care about myself, that I didn't care about the people around me, or that I didn't care about him. He spent months trying to convince me that the mission was going to be the death of me, and that I should just drop it. We fought and didn't talk for months at that time. I slept at Remus's house during the beginning of the mission. It was only after he kicked me out that me and Sirius managed to somewhat make up. We just never really talked about the mission after that. _

_I became friends with Evan Rosier. Idiot had a crush on me when we were in school. It was easy becoming friends with him, met him at the Ministry one day. Asshole was walking around as though he owned the place. I asked him if he wanted to get a drink at The Leaky Cauldron. He happily agreed. We started to talk and I casually mentioned that I thought that pure-bloods were better than Muggle-borns and half-blood, and that I agreed with Voldemort's ideas. Little bastard almost wet himself with excitement after hearing that. _

_Met him a couple days after that and Rosier told me that Voldemort was interested in see me. _

_There have only been three times that I was truly terrified in my life. Once when me, Arabella, and your friend from across the street, Joanna, we playing on the street. We weren't paying attention and a car hit Joanna. I was around seven, and I was terrified. Terrified of whether or not Joann would come out alive. Terrified about Joanna's mother's reaction. Terrified of Hekabe's reaction. Terrified of Abel's reaction. I was just terrified about everything at that moment. _

_Another time when I was really terrified was when I first saw Remus transform into a werewolf. I wasn't terrified of what would have happened to me, I was scared for Remus. I've never seen him or anyone I've ever known go through that much of pain. I just wanted him to be okay. I thought the worst at that moment. _

_The third time I was terrified in my life was when I came face to face with Voldemort himself. Just looking at him made my skin crawl. He asked me questions about my life, and I lied for every single one of them. I was already skilled in Occlumency at that time, so I had nothing to worry about, but his looks, his stares, they terrified me. He asked me what I was prepared to do for, and I said anything. He though I meant anything for him, all the while thinking that I would have done anything for Arabella, anything for revenge. He was quite happy with my answer, but didn't induct me as a Death Eater just yet. _

_He kept me close, but didn't really introduce me to the other Death Eaters. They knew that I was there. Rosier had a big mouth. Whenever there was a Death Eater rally, I was there, pretending to fight for what I didn't believe in. Voldemort didn't ask me to do much, he just said watch and learn. I didn't get to learn any secrets from him, but I got to learn where the next rallies were going to be, which was better than nothing. There was one time that I had to do something. _

_It was sometime in the beginning of June of 1979. I can't remember exactly when, I spent most of my time trying to forget that day. It was during one of the nastiest rallies they ever had. It was just as bad as the one they had in Diagon Alley, if not worst. They had it in the Muggle part of London, and there were trolls there. It was bad just standing there, watching innocent people die. It got even worse when he told me that I needed to prove my loyalties to him. _

_I had to find someone and kill them. I had to find an innocent person and kill them. I was going to object to that idea, but in the end I knew that if I don't find someone, he would, and it would have been someone that I loved. In the end, I found some random stranger in the middle of the street. He was already in pain, he was already crushed by a troll, and I just put him out of his misery. That's what I use to convince myself that I wasn't one of them. Voldemort was satisfied with the killing. _

_I tried to get out of it, I tried to get out of the mission. I never wanted to do that again. It was the worst feeling in the world. In my life I never wanted to kill someone or torture them. I didn't want to. I felt like shit, I felt lower than shit. I was never instigated as a Death Eater, but I was as good as one. I was in too deep and I need to get out. _

_That's where you came in. _

_Two weeks after that horrible day, I found out I was pregnant. I was relieved when I found out. You were my escape goat, but it was a horrible time to be pregnant. You were coming in the middle of a war, and at a time when I was associated with Death Eaters. The first people I told were Isaak, Dumbledore and Moody. I told them about the incident and how I was pregnant. They agreed that the mission should be aborted after that. I rejoiced. I didn't have to go back there and see Voldemort ever again. They told me to keep the pregnancy a secret, and that only the three of them and Sirius should know. _

_Unfortunately, some idiot named Ludo Bagman found out, don't know how, and told Rockwood, who then told Voldemort. I didn't even tell your father yet and Voldemort already knew! Isaak, Dumbledore and Moody took immediate action. Out house in Godric's Hollow was set under the Fidelius Charm with Lily and James as our Secret Keepers. _

_When I told your father that I was pregnant, he was more happier than me. He kept going on about what an amazing kid you were going to be, and how I was going to be an amazing mother. I was so nervous that he didn't want a baby at that time. It wasn't exactly the ideal time to start a family, but we got through it, we always did. Sirius was even more happy when I told him I didn't need to do the mission anymore. _

_Slowly over time we told our friends about the pregnancy. We told Remus, Lily and James first. They were worried, but were still happy for us. Like I said, not the right time. I told Hekabe. She was happy, but underneath that, I could see that she was still trying to get over Arabella's death. She grew distant from Abel at the time and started spending more and more time with Isaak. I didn't read too much into it at the time. I had other things on my mind. We then told Andromeda, Ted, Longbottoms, and Fabian and Gideon over time. _

_We never found out your gender, I wanted to keep it a secret. We never had any good surprises at the time, and this was going to be it for us. Me and Sirius discussed many names for you, even Remus joined the discussion once in a while. Sirius wanted to name you Arabella, and I wasn't sure about it. I was still trying to get over my sister's death, and we barely mentioned her. I asked him if he wanted to name you after a constellation. Cassiopeia, Lyra, Andromeda, Aquila, any name that was related to a constellation, but he refused. He said he wanted to name you Arabella Kassandra Black if you were a girl. It took a lot of convincing from him to finally make me agree to that name. Arabella was like a sister to him, and he loved her like one. I couldn't say no after that. But, if you were a boy, I would have named you Isaak Sirius Black. Has a ring to it, doesn't it?_

_And then you were born. February 25, 1980. I've never been more happy to finally have you in my arms. You looked exactly like me, but with your father's grey eyes. They only people with as at the time you were born beside us was Remus, Lily and James. Lily was about four months pregnant with Harry at that time. We asked her and Remus to be your godparents while James was the honorary uncle. Five months later, Harry James Potter finally entered the world with me and Sirius as he godparents. _

_As soon as things got better, they became worse. James, Lily and Harry had to go into hiding because Voldemort was after them. Isaak's big mouth got him into trouble and he had to go into hiding. Frank ad Alice had to go into hiding. Everything was taking a turn for the worst. _

_One of the worst was losing my friends, my brothers, Fabian and Gibeon Prewett. _

_Fought like heroes, those two. They were attacked in the middle of Diagon Alley by five Death Eaters. They were highly skilled duelists, but they were outnumbered. In the end, they died. _

_It's a horrible day when you lose two of the funniest people in the world. But it's even more worse when you lose your parents. _

_Isaak and Hekabe were happy and proud to be grandparents. They loved you and smothered you with gifts like grandparents should. The problem was that Isaak had to go into hiding so he didn't get to see you as often as I would have liked. Hekabe didn't have to go into hiding, but went along with him. I just thought she need to get away from Abel, turns out I was wrong. Apparently somewhere along the line, when I was undercover, they managed to fall in love with each other. It would have been nice if it happened around the time I was born, but I didn't complain. _

_They lived together in their hide-out for months, until the day when Sirius went to go visit him, and there was the Dark Mark over the house. It happened on December 1__st__, 1980. He immediately contacted Dumbledore, Moody and me. The feeling of losing Arabella came rushing back to me. I screamed, I cried, I punched walls, I broke my knuckles, I was livid. Apparently, they were killed by Voldemort himself. Isaak's body was near the front door, he had his wand with him, but against Voldemort, he really stood no chance. Hekabe was just a few feet away from Isaak. Their hands were almost touching. I punched the wall after seeing that. _

_I buried their bodies beside each other in Godric's Hollow with Arabella beside my mother's grave. It's what she would have wanted. My mother would have wanted to be buried next to her daughter. I wanted revenge, but knew I couldn't do anything, especially since Voldemort knew I betrayed him. He didn't take to traitors lightly. _

_I tried to move one from their deaths and I preoccupied myself with you. Your first word was 'Padfoo', did you know? Your father almost cried with joy, but kept insisting that it was the dust. Me and Lily predicted that you and Harry would have gotten married in the future. James was really excited for that. Almost planned the wedding that day, and he even had a dress picked out for you. Weirdo. Sirius really didn't like that idea at all and became snappy at James for that. I don't think even Remus liked that idea either, can't be sure now. _

_So, this has been my life so far. I'm writing this to you a couple days before your first birthday. Sirius thinks I'm being paranoid, but if you hear things about me from strangers, I rather you know the truth, the whole truth. This is war, and I might not survive. Voldemort's out for me, and I might not get the chance to tell you this in person. That's why I'm writing this to you. _

_I'm sorry if I have disappointed you or made you angry, but I was blinded by revenge. Before I had two people in my life that were constant, that were always there for me, Isaak and Arabella. Now, it's you and your father. Another Arabella and Sirius. If I don't survive this war, I want you to know how much I love you, and how much I care about you. You were my silver lining during the war. I love you._

__**Thank you for reading! So, if you were all wondering whether or not I will write a story about Kassandra, it's a no. That's why I have this and the next chapter dedicated to her life. You've found out everything about Kassandra, so there's really no point in me writing another story when you know what's going to happen. **

**And now I'm going to explain some of the names and meaning, according to the website I'm using. You can read it if you want, I just really wanted to do this for some odd reason:**

**Arabella: 'a praying woman' and 'to pray' - random picking. **

**Kassandra: 'shining or glorious man' - I didn't really read the man part when I picked the name. Just looked at shining. **

**Aminta: 'the defender' and 'I protect' - I just really liked the name and the meaning. **

**Anastas: 'resurrection' - really liked the meaning. **

**Hekabe: 'worker from far off' but in mythology, this is the name of the mother of Kassandra - pretty obvious. **

**Christos: 'servant of Christ' - just randomly picked this one. **

**Isaak: 'he will laugh' - just fitted the character. **

**Antheia: 'lady of flowers' and 'a flower' - really liked the name. **

**Abel: 'breath, vapour' - randomly picked the name. **

**Torell: 'small tower' - it went well with Abel. **

**You didn't have to read that. I did it for my own enjoyment. **


	3. Kassandra Aminta Anastas Part II

**disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, just Arabella. Hope you like it!**

Kassandra Aminta Anastas Part II

Holding the pieces of paper in her hand, Arabella didn't know what to think. Learning all these things, she thought she would have been happy, happy to learn more about her mother, get closer to her, but she wasn't. It's not like she hated what she read, on the contrary, she loved more than half of the information she found out, but she didn't like reading the other things. It made her furious. Furious with Remus and Sirius. They should have told her these things a long time ago. They should have told her about her dead aunt, her dead grandparents, the mission, everything.

Arabella looked back into the chest box and took out the rest of the contents. She took out the pictures and placed them carefully on the floor. The first one was of Kassandra, a man, and a younger looking girl. The background had a big Ferris wheel lighted up and the girls were holding up two pink cotton candy. On the back read: _Me, Arabella and Dad at the carnival. _

Arabella looks back at the people. Isaak was definitely a handsome looking man for his age. He carried himself with a sort of casual demeanour and a confidence in himself. The other Arabella could have easily passed as Kassandra's twin. Same hair, same nose, same mouth, but different eyes. Her eyes were blue, like the sea. They were warm, but had a certain twinkle of mischief in them.

She then looked at the one with Kassandra, Isaak, Arabella and a woman, who was Hekabe, in front of the Hogwarts train. They all looked happy, one big happy family. Hekabe looked like Kassandra and other Arabella, except for the eyes. Hekabe looks on at Kassandra with a proud smile and warmth in her eyes.

The next one was of Kassandra and a younger looking Remus. They were sitting next to the Black Lake with their arms around their shoulders and identical smiles on their faces. Another one had Kassandra with Lily Evans. It was with the same background. Then there was one of Kassandra and James Potter. Kassandra was giving him a piggyback ride. Then there was one of her and two identical red-headed twins, Fabian and Gideon. They had their arms over her shoulders, messing up her hair very badly. Then there was one of her, a boy and a girl. Arabella recognized the two other people as Frank and Alice Longbottom from some newspapers clipping she saw a long time ago. Kassandra and Alice seemed to be tickling Frank mercilessly. Then there was one of Kassandra and Sirius. They were standing next to each other, doing nothing. It looked as though someone was forcing them to take a picture together. They had their arms crossed with identical scowls on their faces.

Then there were ones with Kassandra and Sirius, smiling at each other instead of scowling. There was one during Christmas with a tree in the background. Then one of them holding hands and running from something. Then there was one of them with Remus, the other Arabella and James. Sirius and James were making kissing faces at Remus while Kassandra was doing the same to the other Arabella. No doubt they were making fun of Remus and other Arabella's relationship.

Then there were some pictures from Kassandra and Sirius's wedding. The first one was just of Kassandra and Sirius. They looked like a beautiful couple. Kassandra was actually looking at the camera while Sirius kept kissing her cheeks. The next one was of Kassandra, Sirius, Isaak and Hekabe. Hekabe and Isaak also looked like a beautiful couple. They colour coordinated their outfits as Isaak wore a suit with a purple tie and Hekabe wore a light purple dress. Then there was one of Kassandra, Sirius, Remus and other Arabella. Remus had his arm around other Arabella as she kept kissing his shoulders. He was too tall and she could only reach his shoulders. The next one was of the happy couple with James and Lily. Lily kept trying to fix James's hair, but there was no point really.

Arabella was down to her last five pictures. The first one was of Kassandra holding a baby in her arms. She was holding Arabella. She was sitting on the couch, exhausted, but still had a radiant smile on her face. The next one was of Remus holding her, then Lily, James and finally Sirius. Arabella really couldn't see her face while Sirius was holding her; he kept kissing her forehead and both of her cheeks.

Arabella then slowly took out the silvery bottles and placed them on the bed. Sirius had already placed a pensive next to her bedside table. She was just debating whether or not she would really want to see the memories. There would be some that she would want to see, like the wedding or Kassandra's days at Hogwarts, but then there are the ones that she didn't, like her days as an undercover Death Eater.

She kept weighing the pros and cons before deciding that she would see the memories. She blamed her curiosity in the end.

Slowly, Arabella picked up the bottles and dumped all the slivery liquids into the pensive. They swirled around with each other for a moment before settling down.

Arabella bent forward until the tip of her nose touched the surface of the liquid, and with a massive lurch, she was thrown into the memories of her mother.

* * *

The corridor was brightly lit. Outside one of the doors sat a two men and a girl. One of the men was glaring at the other, who was smiling. The girl was dressed in a pink dress with two ponytails. She was easily around two or three years old – probably two. She kept kicking the air in front of her, excited for what was behind the door.

'I don't see why you had to come,' sneered the glaring man.

'Abel,' said the smiling man, though it looked more like a smirk, 'I'm her best friend, and the father of her first born. It's my obligation to be here.'

'No, it's not,' scoffed Abel. 'I'm her husband and the father of the baby she's giving birth to right now. Just go home, Isaak.'

'No, I don't think I will,' said Isaak, amused.

Abel continued to glare at Isaak as the girl ignored the two of them.

'Are you excited, Kassandra?' whispered Isaak, smiling at her. 'You're going to get a little baby sister to play with.'

Kassandra nodded her head eagerly at Isaak and kept jumping on her seat. Abel rolled his eyes at the two of them.

Arabella just stood there, looking at all of them.

Abel would have been a handsome looking man if he actually smiled at someone. He had light blond hair with bright blue eyes that seemed to make him looked like he was up to something. He had his arms crossed with his whole body rigid as he glared at the other two.

Isaak leaned back in the chair calmly as he smiled at everyone, including Abel, though it was more of a mocking smirk at Abel. He had sandy blonde-brown hair with warm dark brown eyes. He was tapping his foot on the floor, something that seemed to annoy Abel.

Kassandra was bouncing on her seat. Her hair was quite long and they were out into two ponytails. She had Isaak's brown eyes that stared at the door with excitement. She kept biting her lower lip and kicking the air.

'I'm going for a walk,' said Abel, walking away from them before rolling his eyes.

Isaak looked on after him before chuckling and shaking his head.

The door that Kassandra kept looking on finally opened at a Healer came out, looking happy but a bit tired.

'Mr Torell?' she said, looking around at the corridor.

'He just stepped outside, but this is her other daughter,' said Isaak, standing up and indicating at Kassandra.

'You two can come in,' said the Healer. 'Mrs Torell just gave birth to a healthy baby girl. She's tired, but you can come in.'

Arabella followed Isaak and Kassandra into the room. The room was a bit darker, but still bright. On the bed lay a woman with a bundle in her arms. She was smiling at the baby, but she definitely looked tired. She looked up when Isaak and Kassandra entered the room. Her smiled widened when she saw them. It was a definite look of love.

'Hey, Hekabe,' said Isaak softly. He had a look of sadness on his face as he looked at Hekabe with the baby in her arms, but kept a smile on his face.

'Where's Abel?' Hekabe asked.

'He just stepped out,' said Isaak.

'Oh,' said Hekabe, her smiled flattening a bit. 'Come here, Kassandra. Meet your new sister.'

Isaak picked up Kassandra and put her on the bed next to Hekabe. Kassandra leaned forward and saw her sister's sleeping face.

'What's her name mommy?' asked Kassandra quietly. She then looked back at her mother with her brown eyes widening.

'Arabella,' said Hekabe, happily. 'Arabella Antheia Torell.'

'She's beautiful, Kabe,' said Isaak, smiling sadly. 'Congrads.'

'Thank, Isaak,' said Hekabe, mirroring his smile.

The scene changed and this time Arabella was standing in the Great Hall with a bunch of first years waiting to be sorted.

'Anastas, Kassandra,' said Professor McGonagall very clearly. She looked more or less the same.

Arabella walked with her mother until they reached the chair in front of the Great Hall. Professor McGonagall dropped the hat on top of Kassandra. It was at least a minute or two before the hat yelled, 'GRYFFIDOR!'

The table at the far right of the room burst into cheers and applause as Kassandra took of the hat and went to join her fellow Gryffindors. Arabella followed her. She stood there watching the rest of the first years being sorted.

When the Sorting Hat declared that Sirius Black was a Gryffindor, the Great Hall was silent before there were scattered clapping from them. Sirius sat beside Kassandra but they didn't talk to each other.

Lily Evan, Frank Longbottom, Remus Lupin, Alice Smith, Fabian and Gibeon Prewett, and Peter Pettigrew were also sorted into Gryffindor. The scene changed before Dumbledore could get up and start his speech.

It was the same area, but with a different group of first years. Arabella looked at the Gryffindor table and saw her mother bouncing eagerly on her seat, waiting for Professor McGonagall to hurry up. Sirius looked hungry and kept playing with his fork.

'Torell, Arabella,' said Professor McGonagall.

Arabella watched as the other Arabella walked eagerly to the stool and jammed the Sorting Hat on her head. Within seconds the Sorting Hat yelled, 'GRYFFINDOR!'

Kassandra immediately jumped from her seat, clapping like a mad woman before Lily pulled her down. The other Gryffindor clapped along as well, but not like Kassandra.

The scene changed again. This time Arabella was in the Gryffindor common room two people were standing in front of the fire place, yelling at each other. Looking further, Arabella saw that it was Kassandra and Sirius, but they looked older now. Their faces were red as the veins on their neck were popping out slightly.

Arabella looked around the room. Remus and the other Arabella were sitting on the couch, holding hands discretely as both of them looked on the fight awkwardly. James, Lily and Peter were standing on the side line, looking just as awkward. Alice and Frank were sitting in the corner, trying to block out whatever Kassandra and Sirius were fighting about. Fabian and Gideon exchanged some money in between them as they whispered quietly to each other.

'What are they fighting about?' whispered the other Arabella to Remus.

'No idea,' he whispered. 'And I doubt they know too.'

'Yeah! And you're a big head, egotistical ass!' yelled Kassandra.

'And you think you know everything, right? Well, you don't! You're just a dumb, stupid little girl!' yelled Sirius.

'At least I have a brain! What do you have?'

'More than you!'

'Not bloody likely! You don't even have a proper family! I bet they all hate you!'

There was a small gasp that escaped from other Arabella's mouth as Sirius stood there in front of Kassandra with a face of hatred and sadness. He turned around and walked to his dormitory without another word. Remus sighed before getting up and following after him. Everyone was looking at Kassandra with a hopeless look on their faces. James looked angry at her.

'What?' said Kassandra, shrugging. 'I won.'

James moved closer to Kassandra, whispering in her right ear rapidly. Kassandra's eyes widened just as James finished saying something to her.

'So, I - ?'

'Messed up, yes,' snapped James. 'Make this right. We're all tired of watching the two of you fighting.'

The scene changed again as the only two people in the common room were Sirius and Kassandra. Sirius was sitting in front of the fireplace, just gazing at it. Kassandra was sitting at a nearby table with a book in her hands. She kept looking at him, contemplating something as she kept biting her lips.

'Just say it,' said Sirius, not moving his eyes away from the flames.

'Say what,' said Kassandra, somewhat startled.

'Whatever you want to say. You've been starting at me all night,' said Sirius.

'Not all night,' grumbled Kassandra.

Sirius shrugged but said nothing.

Kassandra sighed before closing her book and moved closer to him. She sat on the other side of the couch, facing him. Sirius still didn't look at her.

'I'm sorry,' said Kassandra.

No response.

'I'm really sorry for what I said. I didn't mean any of it. It was in the heat of the moment,' said Kassandra.

'It's fine,' said Sirius, softly, still not looking at her. 'It's not like what you said wasn't true, so… yeah…'

'I'm sorry,' said Kassandra. 'I really am.'

'I know,' sighed Sirius, finally looking at her. 'Let's just forget about it, all right?'

'Okay,' said Kassandra, still sitting there on the couch, awkwardly.

The scene changed again. Sirius was sitting on a chair at a table, leaning back so that two of the chair legs were supporting him. He had a smile on his face as Kassandra was sitting across from his, studying.

'So, what do you say, Kas?' asked Sirius, smiling at her.

'Say to what, Siri?' said Kassandra, not looking up.

'Will you go out with me or not?' said Sirius.

Whatever happened in the last memory seemed to have passed them as they appeared to be on really good terms now.

Kassandra looked up at his skeptically.

'You want to go out?' said Kassandra.

'Yes,' said Sirius, nodding his head.

'On a date?'

'Yes, that is what going out generally means.'

'Not really. I could go out with James, but it wouldn't be a date.'

'But we not talking about James, we're talking about you and me going out,' argued Sirius. 'Come on, will you go out with me?'

'Are you sure?' asked Kassandra.

'Yes, I'm sure,' said Sirius, still smiling at her.

'Okay,' said Kassandra, nodding at bit with a smile on her face. 'I'll go out with you.'

The scene changed again. Arabella was in the charms corridor. A few feet away from her were Kassandra and James, walking together.

'What about flowers?' asked James. 'What kind of flowers does she like?'

'I don't know James,' said Kassandra, irritated.

'How do you not know? You're her best friend! What do the two of you –?'

James didn't get to finish his sentence as the two of them rounded to a corner with two people locked together in an embrace. It was Remus and other Arabella. Other Arabella's arms were around Remus's neck with her legs wrapped around his hips. Remus's arms were just under legs, supporting her. They were kissing each other very fiercely.

'What the hell is this?!' exclaimed Kassandra, looking completely shocked with her mouth hanging open.

Remus accidently let go of other Arabella's leg and she fell to the floor with a small yelp. She got up very quickly and stood in front of Kassandra with an identical guilty expression like Remus had.

The scene changed again. Arabella stood outside of a house. There was a little wind, but not much. There was a wedding going on as Kassandra and Sirius stood in front of Dumbledore as he pronounced them husband and wife. The two of them beamed as they leaned in and kissed each other.

They looked happy and peaceful as their guests cheered and applauded for them, no matter how small they were.

The scene changed again. Arabella was standing in the middle of Diagon Alley during a post battle. Stores were still on fire, but people were putting them out. People were running around frantically, trying to help as best as they can. A couple feet away from her, there was a group of people huddled around something she couldn't see.

Arabella moved close and looked over Frank Longbottom's shoulders. On the ground, lay the other Arabella. Her hair was fanned out as she looked up at the sky with a vacant look on her face. Kassandra was kneeling next to her body, crying hysterically with Sirius trying to hold her back from hurting herself. Remus was standing next to the closest wall, hands on his head, crying.

'Arry,' he whispered sadly, and Arabella's heart broke at the sound of his voice.

The scene changed again. Arabella was standing in Dumbledore's office. Kassandra was sitting across from Dumbledore with Mad-Eye on his right and Isaak on the left. Kassandra was staring at the desk, not meeting anybody's eye. It looked as though she had been crying for a life time. Dumbledore was gazing at her with piercing blue eyes as though he was considering something. Mad-Eye was looking out the window, but still paying attention. Isaak looked mad at Kassandra as he had his arms crossed with a furious expression.

'Are you sure you want to do this?' asked Dumbledore.

Kassandra looked up and nodded definitely as Isaak sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose.

The scene changed again. Arabella was standing in the living room of her old house with Kassandra and Sirius yelling at each other, both red faced.

'Don't you care about yourself? Don't you care me? Why would you even what to do this?' yelled Sirius.

'You know exactly why I'm doing this!' Kassandra shot back. 'And of course I care about you! I've always cared about you, you idiot! But I have to do this!'

'No, you don't! You don't have to do this! You're putting yourself in –'

'I know what I'm putting myself in,' said Kassandra through her clenched teeth.

'Then got out of the mission!'

'No!'

'Fine!' exclaimed Sirius, throwing his hands in the air. 'Fine! Put yourself into danger! Do whatever you want! Clearly you don't care about what would happen to us if something goes wrong! What would happen to Remus or James or Lily or even me! Just do whatever the hell you want to do!'

The scene changed again as Arabella was now standing in a dark room with a single light source. There was a long table with two occupants on the far side of the table. Arabella walked closer to them.

'What are you prepared to do, Kassandra?' asked a soft voice. It was Voldemort, but he looked different from when Arabella saw him at the graveyard. He looked like how he did in the Chamber of Secrets, but his looks were starting to fade a bit.

'Anything,' said Kassandra, meeting his gaze with steel in her voice.

The scene changed again. Arabella was standing in a bathroom with Kassandra sitting on the floor with a stick in her hands.

'Oh my,' whispered Kassandra. She looked like she was caught between fear and happiness.

The scene changed again. Arabella was standing in the kitchen from her old house with Sirius and Kassandra sitting at the table with some books in between them. Sirius was flipping through them lazily while Kassandra was absorbing them in. She already had a very big belly.

'What about Czarina?' asked Kassandra. 'It means female ruler?'

'Vito,' said Sirius.

'That's the tenth name I've told you,' said Kassandra, shutting the book. 'We need to think of two names. One for a girl and one for a boy. We need to be prepared, Sirius, and you haven't even given a suggestion.'

'I give you a suggestion, Kassandra,' said Sirius, 'but you didn't like it for some reason.'

'No,' said Kassandra. 'I don't want to.'

'Yes, you do,' said Sirius. 'I want to name her Arabella Kassandra Black.'

'She was my sister,' said Kassandra quietly and sadly.

'She was my sister too,' said Sirius, 'in all the ways that counted. I loved her like a sister, and I wanted to name our kid that if it's a girl.'

Kassandra was staring at Sirius for a long time, rubbing her belly a bit.

'You really want this?' she said.

'Yes, I do,' said Sirius, nodding.

Kassandra sighed before she also nodded. 'It does have a ring to it, I guess. Arabella Kassandra Black.'

'It does,' said Sirius fondly. 'And if it's a boy?'

'Isaak,' said Kassandra. 'Isaak Sirius Black.'

'Lovely middle name,' said Sirius, smiling at her.

Kassandra rolled her eyes before returning the smile.

The scene changed again as Arabella was back in the living room with Kassandra sitting on the couch with a tired expression on her face. The only other person there was Sirius, who was sitting beside her with a bundle in his arms. There were no words that were exchanged between the two of them. They just kept looking at the baby in Sirius's arms and occasionally kissing each other.

The scene changed again as Arabella was standing outside a house. It was during night time as the Dark Mark illuminated the sky. She heard a piercing screaming noise before heading inside. The first thing Arabella saw as she entered the house was Isaak's dead, lifeless body with Hekabe a few feet away from him. Their hands were almost touching. Their hands were just a few inches away from each other.

Kassandra was punching the wall as Sirius was trying to hold her back from doing any permanent damage.

Arabella decided that she had enough. She turned away and walked out of the house. She closed her eyes and before she knew it, she was back in Grimmauld Place, back in her room.

**Thank you for reading! **


	4. The Animagus

**disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, just Arabella. Hope you like it!**

The Animagus

Slowly and carefully, Arabella walked downstairs to the kitchen. She walked as quietly as she possible could as to not wake up her grandmother's portrait. Nymph had already done that twice in the last week, and Arabella managed to get as far away from it as she possible could.

Entering the kitchen, she saw Remus and Sirius sitting there, waiting for her.

Arabella took her seat, silently, waiting for them to start talking.

'So…' said Sirius awkwardly.

Arabella just kept looking at the two of them. She was done asking questions; it was their turn to start talking.

'Well,' said Remus, even more awkwardly, 'how was it?'

'How was it?' repeated Arabella, anger starting to creep up on her. 'Well, let's see. I have grandparents that I didn't know about, an aunt that all of a sudden exists who you've dated; my mother was an undercover Death Eater, and most, if not all, of my family is dead, and nobody, especially the two of you, told me nothing. So, how you think it went?'

'Not well I'm guessing,' mumbled Sirius.

'Not well doesn't even cover it,' snapped Arabella. She wanted to say many things to the two of them, many hateful, hurtful things. She wanted to scream why at them. Why didn't she know anything? Did they not trust her? Do they think she was still a little girl? Did they think she couldn't handle the truth? What the hell was also something she really wanted to yell at them. But she didn't say any of that. There was no point really. What was done, was done, and it looked like they really didn't want to talk about the other Arabella and Kassandra's mission.

'I want to go see them,' said Arabella after a long pause. 'I want to go see their bodies.'

They were all buried in Godric's Hollow. She would be able to see the four of them together. It would have been like a family reunion, except with all the happiness that came with it.

'I don't think –'

'You should –'

'I don't care!' yelled Arabella, fuming. 'I don't care. I want to go see where they are buried. They are my family, and I never got to see them. I want to go see them, I need to go see them. Are you going to take me or should I go myself?'

Sirius was about to open his mouth to say something, but Remus said, 'Fine, let's go.'

Sirius closed his mouth with a frown on his face.

Remus got up and walked towards the front door with Arabella following right behind him. No words were exchanged between the two of them as Arabella held onto Remus's arm and they were Apparated straight to Godric's Hollow.

They walked inside the graveyard and Arabella went straight to Kassandra's tombstone, knowing where to find the other three members of her family.

Arabella stood in front of her mother's tombstone and looked to her right where the others were buried. First her aunt, then her grandmother, and grandfather.

_Arabella Antheia Torell _

_BORN November 11, 1961 _

_DIED August 6, 1978 _

_May we all fall happily together_

_Hekabe Korina Christos Torell_

_BORN April 19, 1937 _

_DIED December 1, 1980 _

_Love is a blessing and a curse_

_Isaak Kain Anastas_

_BORN January 3, 1937_

_DIED December 1, 1980_

_Laugh, even when you're facing death _

Arabella never noticed the other tombstones before. It was rather silly actually, considering that she shared the same name with the tombstone next to her mother's. She sat down on the grass in front of the four tombstones and wondered what kind of people they were.

She imagined she would have liked them all. If Arabella was alive today, she and Remus might have gotten married by now, maybe even with some kids running around. Hekabe would have probably divorced Abel and married Isaak. Isaak would be working with Dumbledore right now since Voldemort's rebirth. Arabella would probably have a different name, maybe one carrying on the Black tradition.

If they were alive, Kassandra would be too. They would have been a happy family, the three of them. Sirius wouldn't have gone after Pettigrew; he would have stayed with them. Arabella might even have a little brother or sister, or even both. She might even have named one of them, after annoying her parents into it.

The thought of a family made Arabella's heart ache. She only had Nymph, Andy, Ted, Remus and Sirius. Nymph's had Auror training for the last three years, and Andy and Ted have been away on vacation for some time. Sirius has been locked away in Azkaban for twelve years, and she's only now starting to know him. Remus has been her family for the last thirteen years and now Sirius was starting to be one too. But she wanted a real family. One with a mother, a father, grandparents, aunts, uncles, siblings, cousins, the whole nine yards.

Maybe in another life, she would have had all those things. In another life, they would have been much more happier.

'Hey,' said Remus quietly, taking a seat next to her.

Arabella didn't say anything except stare at the quote on Hekabe's tombstone.

'She used to say that, your grandmother,' said Remus, following her line of vision. 'I don't think Kas ever understood why she said that, but Arabella, your aunt, knew. She knew that Hekabe was in love with Isaak.'

'Then why did she marry Abel?' asked Arabella, raising her right eyebrow, but not moving her eyes away.

'I don't know,' said Remus, shrugging his shoulders. 'She never asked.'

'Mom thought they had no feelings towards each other,' said Arabella, her voice monotone.

'Well, your mother wasn't exactly the best with recognizing feeling between some people. James had to tell her that what relationships that were going on with other people. There would be times when she did see them, though.'

'They were in love with each other the whole time,' said Arabella, more of a statement than a question.

'Yes, they were,' said Remus.

'But were too stupid to do something until it was too late.'

'Better late than never,' said Remus. 'And they weren't stupid. They're amazing people.'

_I bet they were _thought Arabella. _I never got to know any of them. _

'Why don't you ever talk about Arabella?' asked Arabella. 'And please don't lie or try to spare my feelings.'

'Remember after your mother died?' asked Remus, looking at her, but she didn't. 'You barely talked about her. Every time somebody mentioned her, you would cry for the whole day.'

'What's your point?' said Arabella.

'It's not easy, talking about somebody you love,' said Remus. 'Especially after they passed away. The things you wished you said to them, the things you wanted to do with them for the rest of your life. One day she was there, and the next day she was gone.'

Arabella turned to look at him, and instantly forgave him. The look on his face, it was a look of sorrow and pain. He was staring intently at Arabella's grave. She wondered whether or not he came and visited without her. If he talked to Arabella, or just sat there quietly beside her tombstone for a while. The thought of a broken down Remus sitting beside the tombstone of the person he loved, made her heart ache even more.

Arabella reached out and touched his hand lightly. Remus looked up and saw Arabella giving him a reassuring smile. A smile full of promises and hope. Hope for a better future and promises of never leaving him.

'Let's go back,' said Arabella, standing up. 'Sirius's waiting for us.'

Remus got up, with a small sad smile on his face. Arabella held on to his arm and the Apparated back to Grimmauld Place.

* * *

A week flew by and they never talked about it again. Nobody mentioned Isaak, Hekabe or the other Arabella.

_It was better this way _Arabella thought. _Nobody would get hurt this way. _

For the past week, Arabella was stuck in the Black library, looking at the different types of books. She really didn't have that much to do, except work on her invention. It was a difficult piece of work and she had all the books that she needed spread out on the floor of the library. She had some other books that she thought was interesting beside her also. Topics on other things she might want to accomplish by the time summer ends.

There was a knock on the door and Sirius entered the library. He smiled when he saw her trying to keep her eyes open with a thick book in her hands.

'Trying to work out the potion?' asked Sirius, motioning to the books.

'Yeah,' yawned Arabella, stretching her arms. 'Thing's taking a lot of work.'

'You thinking of becoming an Animagus?' asked Sirius, sitting down next to her and picking up one of the books.

'Maybe,' said Arabella nonchalantly.

'It's going to take a lot of work,' said Sirius, flipping through the book.

'That's why you're going to help me,' said Arabella, smiling at him.

'What makes you think I'm going to help you?' said Sirius, raising his right eyebrow that looked just like her.

'Are you serious?' said Arabella, looking at him in disbelief.

'Well –'

'Of course you're going to help me!' said Arabella, before he could finish that pun. 'As a father, it's your duty to help me.'

'You're going to break the law,' quirked Sirius, smiling at her.

'You're breaking the law right now,' shot back Arabella. 'You're an escaped prisoner AND you're an illegal Animagus.'

Sirius took one long look at her before nodding his head.

'Really?' asked Arabella, taken back. 'You'll help me?'

'Of course I'll help you,' said Sirius. 'Just after we finish this potion.'

And the two of them began to work on Arabella's invention. It was really their invention now.

* * *

After three long days of working tirelessly, their potion was finally complete. They worked day and night, trying to complete it. They had to test it on someone, but had no idea who. Sirius first thought of Remus or Nymph, but Arabella vetoed that idea. Then Sirius remembered that there was going to be an Order of the Phoenix meeting tonight, but Arabella firmly shook her head at this. She didn't want to get on any of the skilled wizards' bad sides.

'We have to try it on one someone,' insisted Sirius.

'Try what on who?' asked Remus, walking by the library.

'Try the potion on someone,' said Arabella, motioning to the cauldron with purple steam coming out of it.

'The Weasleys are coming here in a week's time,' said Remus thoughtfully.

'They are?' asked Arabella, excited.

'Yeah, them and Hermione are coming her for the rest of the summer,' said Remus, nodding.

Arabella was thrilled at the idea of her best friends staying for the summer.

'You could use the potion on Fred and George,' said Remus, smiling.

'Excellent,' said Sirius, clapping his hands together, and looking quite mischievous.

'Great,' said Arabella. 'Don't you to have a –'

Before she could finish her sentence, the doorbell rang, and Arabella groaned. At once, her grandmother's horrible, screeching, shrill voice rang throughout the whole house. Sirius, Remus and Arabella bashed from the library and went to her portrait. Sirius went to get the door as Remus and Arabella tugged on the curtains to shut over the portrait, but they would not close.

'Filth! Scum! Half-breads, mutts, freaks, be gone from this place! How dare you befoul the house of my fathers –'

'Shut up you miserable old bat! Shut up!' shouted Arabella, tugging harder on the curtains.

Her grandmother's face screwed into a nasty scowl as she turned towards Arabella.

'You!' she screeched extremely loudly, waking up the rest of the portraits and making Remus and Arabella cringe. 'Filthy half-blood! Scum of the earth! Spawn of my son! How dare you enter my father's house! How dare you show –'

'I said SHUT UP!' screeched Arabella, matching her tone with her grandmother's.

And the two of them finally managed to get the curtains closed.

'Wow,' said Sirius quietly, as they were some people behind him. 'She really hates you,' he said, stating the obvious.

'Yeah, well, she didn't take too kindly when she heard that I didn't want to visit her anymore,' said Arabella, shrugging. She then turned to the group of people behind Sirius. 'Please, for the love of god, don't ever ring the doorbell again.'

'My deepest apologies,' said a very deep voice just behind Sirius. Arabella recognized that voice.

Sirius stepped aside and motioned towards the kitchen where all the members walked towards.

The speaker was Kingsley Shacklebolt, who smiled at her before disappearing through the door. Arabella didn't recognize most of them, but saw Professor McGonagall, Snape, Nymph, Mad-Eye, and Mr Weasley, who also gave her a smile. Remus went after them.

'How long's the meeting for?' Arabella asked Sirius.

'No idea,' said Sirius. 'Were going to wait for Dumbledore.'

'Are you going to tell me what you're going to talk about in there?' asked Arabella.

'Most of it, yes,' said Sirius, taking Arabella back. 'But not now, later.'

'When's later?'

'When Harry comes,' said Sirius. 'Then I can tell the both of you instead of repeating it two times.'

'Moony know about this?'

'No, and I know he's not going to be happy,' said Sirius, sighing.

'Are you happy about it? Telling me about the meetings and stuff?' asked Arabella.

'No,' said Sirius, shaking his head. 'But it's better than just going out there being unprepared and no idea what's going on. I rather you know what Voldemort's up to rather than just finding some false truths from random strangers.'

Arabella nodded as the front door clicked open. In entered Albus Dumbledore, walking in with a blank look on his face.

'Arabella,' he said, nodding at her. 'Sirius, are we ready to start?'

Sirius nodded and the both of them disappeared into the kitchen with Sirius closing the door behind him.

Arabella went back to the library, reading up on the material needed to become an Animagus until the meeting was over.

* * *

'Arabella, Arabella, wake up,' said a voice, shaking her awake.

'Wasgoingon?' slurped Arabella, waking up with a thick book on her stomach.

'The meeting's over,' said Sirius. 'You can come see some of the members if you want.'

Arabella nodded, standing up and walking down the steps with Sirius. All the members were in the kitchen hallway, talking to each other.

'Hello Mr Weasley,' said Arabella, spotting him talking to Kingsley Shacklebolt.

'Hello Arabella,' said Mr Weasley in his usual cheerful voice. 'How are you?'

'Fine,' said Arabella, shrugging.

'Hello Arabella,' said Kingsley. 'Remember me?'

'Are you the one who told me that my mass murdering father escaped from Azkaban?' said Arabella, looking quite thoughtful, but smiling.

Kingsley laughed before nodding.

'Arabella!' said Nymph from the other side of the hallway, waving at her. She walked towards them, and tripped over the umbrella stand in the process.

'Sorry!' said Nymph, picking up the stand. 'Sorry!'

'Filthy half-blood,' said a voice quietly behind Arabella. 'Disgracing the house of my mistress. Kreacher sees them. Yes, Kreacher sees them all. Oh, my poor mistress, what would she say if she saw Kreacher serving that ungrateful brat and his spawn of a –'

'Kreacher!' shouted Sirius. 'That's enough of your bile! Away with yea!'

'Yes, master,' said Kreacher, bowing low. He turned away, all the while muttering foul things under his breath.

'Anyway,' said Mr Weasley awkwardly, checking his watch. 'Have to go back, Molly's waiting for me. See you all later.'

And one by one, they all left until it was just Sirius and Arabella standing in the hallway.

'How was the meeting?' asked Arabella.

Sirius shrugged.

'Snape giving you any trouble?'

'Nothing I can't handle,' said Sirius.

'Go to bed, Dad,' said Arabella. 'You looked tired.'

'Gee, thanks,' said Sirius, rolling his eyes, but he then went upstairs to his room.

Arabella walked upstairs until she reached hers. She had a strong urge to go see what Sirius's room looked like, but though it was best the she didn't see it. Not yet at least.

* * *

'Are you sure it's ready?' said Arabella, peering into the cauldron. 'Didn't it take you three years or something?'

'Yes it did, and it's ready,' said Sirius, closing the potion book.

It was three days after the Order meeting and Sirius and Arabella were working on her becoming an Animagus. According to Sirius, and the book, there was a potion that needed to be taken and then concentration later.

'Are you positively sure?' said Arabella, looking at the grey potion. 'It doesn't look very appetizing.'

'Not all potions are supposed to,' said Sirius, waving his wand, cleaning up their station in the library. He then poured the potion into one of the cups they brought up from the kitchen and handed it to her. 'Drink the whole thing. It should kick in after a couple minutes. Just concentrate about turning into something, though.'

'Okay,' said Arabella, taking the cup from him. Sirius looked at her expectantly. 'What?'

'Take the potion,' said Sirius, motioning her to drink it.

'Not with you here,' said Arabella, shaking her head.

'What? Why?' said Sirius, a bit outraged. 'I helped you make it!'

'Well, I don't want you to be here in case something went wrong with my clothes,' said Arabella, smiling as Sirius started to looked extremely uncomfortable.

'Fine,' said Sirius, looking reluctant. 'I'll be right outside. Drink the whole thing.'

Arabella nodded as Sirius left the room and shut the door. She turned to the cup in her hands. It was a sickly looked grey potion, and the smell wasn't that great either. Arabella brought the cup close to her lips and took a small sip, almost gagging. She then covered her nose and drowned the whole thing as fast as she could.

She dropped the cup to the carpet on the floor and took a couple steps back until her back touched the wall. The taste of the potion was really horrible, almost as bad as the Polyjuice Potion. She looked at the arms, but there was no change. She inspected the rest of her body, and was still the same.

Arabella then closed her eyes and concentrated as hard as she could. She imagined herself shrinking into something, though she didn't know what. She imagined herself running through the woods, swimming in the lake, walking along the snow, but she was shorter, much shorter.

Then, at once, she started to shrink. Dark brown furs were starting to cover her body. She then immediately went on all fours as her arms started to turn into canine legs. She left a tail grow with ears shooting up from her head. She had a long beak with white furs around her mouth. She stuck out her tongue and managed to get it to touch past her nose. Her teeth were all very sharp. Upon inspection, she saw that the colour of her furs were not only dark brown, but had some light brown with white near her belly button area. Her nails were long and her tail was wiggling in excitement.

She gave a small bark and Sirius walked back into the library, smiling at her Animagus form. She then concentrated and changed back into her human form.

'Did you see that?' asked Arabella excitedly as she stood up, jumping on her feet. 'What was it? A dog? A wolf?'

'A coyote,' said Sirius. 'A dark haired coyote.'

He looked at his daughter with a proud expression on his face, before it turned to a mischievous one.

'Well, come on,' said Sirius. 'Change back. We can go scare Moony.'

Arabella smiled wickedly at her father before turning back into the coyote and walked out of the library with Sirius in the lead, ready to scare Remus out of his wits.

**Thank you for reading! More on the potion next week! I think you'll like it! Also, thank you zZhell-butterflyZz for helping me think of the animal!**


	5. Sirius and Arabella's Potion

**disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, just Arabella. Hope you like it!**

Sirius and Arabella's Potion

To say Remus was surprised was putting it lamely. He was beyond shocked and, to Arabella's opinion, almost had a heart attack. He berated Arabella and Sirius for doing something so illegal and dangerous without telling him. This went on for some time before Remus told them that he was impressed that it didn't take her three years to become an Animagus. They spent the next two hours thinking of a new to call her. In the end, they agreed in the name Alala, meaning war-like in Greek. Arabella really liked that name; Remus and Sirius were a bit sceptical, but were content in the end.

A week later, the Weasleys and Hermione were coming over to stay for the rest of the summer. Arabella was very ecstatic and was jumping up and down when she had breakfast with Sirius, who was reading the Daily Prophet. She tried to ignore the newspapers as much as possible. They've been calling Harry and Dumbledore many things in between articles and have mentioned Arabella once or twice. They've been mostly building on what Skeeter wrote during her fourth year. Slandering their names in the mud.

Arabella was in her room, standing in front of the mirror Sirius had brought in and kept shifting between herself and Alala. She was still getting over her shock of becoming an Animagus. She had grown to love her coyote Animagus form. The different shades of brown fur with white near her belly and mouth area, and black fur on her tail with the dark grey eyes.

It was her tenth time turning into the big coyote when the doorbell rang. She growled and ran towards the stairs when she heard her grandmother's screeching voice.

'Filthy scum! Dirt on my foot! How dare you step foot in the house of my fathers –'

'Shut up, you horrible old hag! SHUT UP!' yelled Sirius, trying to close the curtains.

'You!' she screeched very loudly, making Sirius cringe. 'Blood traitor! Abomination! Shame of my – _ahhhhh_!'

Alala bared her teeth, snarled and leaped forward, scratching the wall behind the portrait with her claws. Walburga gave off a high pitched scream and the curtains closed very quickly. No noise came from it after that.

Alala changed back into Arabella, who was furious. She turned towards the group of people who just entered the house. She recognized the mop of red hair and a bushy one. They were all looking very scared as they were all in a huddle together. At the back of the group were Nymph, Remus and Kingsley. Nymph was looking very guilty and tried to avoid Arabella's gaze. Arabella didn't notice the look on her face. She glared at all of them.

'Which one of you rang the doorbell?' said Arabella, very slowly, annunciating every single word in a low menacing voice.

Remus and Kingsley were both looking at Nymph, and this time she caught the look.

'Nymphadora Tonks! How many times do I have to tell you not to ring the doorbell?!' yelled Arabella, glaring solely at Nymph.

Nymph cringed at her full name but didn't say anything about it. She mumbled an apology and her hair turned into a bright blue colour. It was one of Arabella's favourite colours on her.

Arabella sighed. She couldn't stay mad at Nymph for too long, no matter how she irritated her.

Sirius put his left hand on her shoulder, and she relaxed at his touch.

Arabella sighed and turned towards their guests.

'Well, welcome to our humble abode,' said Arabella, smiling at the Weasleys. 'Please, come in. would you like something to eat or drink? The kitchen's right through there,' she added, pointing down the corridor.

The Weasleys and Hermione looked at Arabella as though she was sprouted feathers and was doing the chicken dance in front of her.

'Why don't we all go in the kitchen and figure out where everyone's sleeping,' said Remus, trying to move the Weasleys and Hermione along towards the kitchen. They followed him into the kitchen, past Arabella and Sirius with Kingsley and Tonks just behind them.

'What was that about?' said Arabella, turning towards Sirius.

'I think they're a little scared of you,' said Sirius, smiling at her a bit.

'Why would they be scared of me? I've never done anything bad to them,' said Arabella.

'They weren't expecting you to turn into a coyote, now were they?' said Sirius. 'Then there was also my mother's devil like face with her horrible voice. Of course they would be scared.'

'Still…' said Arabella shrugging.

'You wanna do the prank tomorrow for breakfast?' said Sirius, his grey eyes twinkling in mischief.

'Yes,' said Arabella, a bit too loudly. 'I've been waiting for Fred and George to get here for that,' she added a bit more softly.

'Arabella,' said Remus, coming back into the corridor, 'Hermione has some questions for you. She sounds persistent.'

Arabella, a bit nervous, walked into the kitchen with Remus in front and Sirius beside her. Just as she entered the kitchen, she was hit with the force known as Hermione Granger. Bits of bushy hair were in her mouth as Hermione hugged her very tightly. She pulled away and looking at Arabella in shock.

'When did you become an Animagus?' she asked.

'About a week or so –'

'And you didn't tell me?!' said Hermione, a bit outraged. 'First the things with Harry and now this? Honestly, how many secrets do you have?'

'Not that many,' said Arabella, a bit meekly. 'I'll tell you everything,' she added, noticing the glare coming on Hermione's face.

'You better,' said Hermione, just as Ginny stepped forward and hugged her.

'It's good to see you all again,' said Arabella, letting go of Ginny and hugging Ron.

'Why didn't you keep in touch?' said Fred, just as Arabella got to them.

'Yeah, we were waiting for your letters,' said George.

'Waiting by the window for them.'

'We were so broken hearted when nothing came.'

'So, no hugs for you two?' asked Arabella, just as Fred and George pulled her into a sandwich hug.

'Did you figure out the colour bomb?' she choked out as she was stilled in between the two of them.

'No,' said Fred shortly.

'You gave them the colour bomb?' said Remus, looking shocked.

'Maybe,' said Arabella, just as Fred and George let go of her. Remus looking at her in disbelief as Mr and Mrs Weasley exchanged a look of fear.

'It's not like they're going to figure it out,' said Arabella, rolling her eyes. 'It took us years to figure it out. They're not going to be able to do that in a couple months. Have some fate in me, Moons.'

'Thanks for the vote of confidence,' said George sarcastically.

Arabella then turned towards Mrs Weasley, who gave her a big, warm hug.

'How are you, dear?' asked Mrs Weasley, holding Arabella's face in her hands, smiling her warmly.

'I'm good,' said Arabella, smiling at Mrs Weasley. 'Where's -?' She was about to ask where Percy was, but noticed Bill's head shaking behind Mr Weasley's.

'Who, dear?' said Mrs Weasley, noticing Arabella's slight hesitation.

'Um… Bill,' said Arabella, trying to cover it up. 'Then I noticed he was just right there.'

'Oh, ok,' said Mrs Weasley, sounding as though she didn't believe him.

'Um, why don't we all sit down, and I'll get us some drinks,' said Arabella, looking around at them. 'Ron, why don't you come help me,' she added, looking pointedly at him.

Ron looked slightly taken back, but followed Arabella down a flight of stairs where the cellar was. They kept all sorts of drinks down here. There were various types of pop drinks with butterbear at one corner. There were also some alcoholic drinks here as well. Firewhiskeys and various types of French wine and beers also. It was the coldest part of the house, and a perfect place to have a secret conversation with a friend.

'What happened with Percy?' Arabella asked immediately as she led Ron to where the butterbear were.

A dark look overshadowed Ron's face at the mention of Percy's name.

'Don't mention him in front of Mum and Dad,' Ron told her in a tense voice.

'What happened?' Arabella repeated again.

'Percy and Dad had a row,' said Ron. 'It's usually Mum who shouts, never seen Dad have a row with anyone like that. It was the first week back after term ended. Percy came home and told us he'd been promoted.'

'What?' said Arabella, amazed. 'They promoted him? He doesn't have a lot of experience.'

'That's what we thought,' said Ron. 'He came home really happy and told Dad that he got an offer in Fudge's own office. A really good one for someone only a year out of Hogwarts: Junior Assistant to the Minister. He expected Dad to be all impressed, I think.'

'But he wasn't?' Arabella guessed.

'No, he wasn't,' said Ron, shaking his head. 'Fudge's been going round the Ministry checking that nobody's having any contact with Dumbledore. His name's in the mud with the Ministry these days. They think he's making trouble with You-Know-Who coming back. Dad says Fudge's made it clear that anyone who's in league with Dumbledore can clear out their desks. Thing is, Fudge suspects Dad. He's always been friendly with Dumbledore, and he's always thought that Dad was a weirdo with his obsession with Muggles.'

'What's that got to do with Percy?' said Arabella, looking confused.

'Well, Dad reckons Fudge only wants Percy in his office because he wants to use him to spy on the family and Dumbledore.'

'Oh dear.'

'Percy went completely berserk. He said – well, he said loads of terrible stuff. He said he's been having to struggle against Dad's lousy reputation ever since he joined the Ministry and that Dad's got no ambition and that's why we've always been – you know – not had a lot of money, I mean –'

'What?' said Arabella, shocked. 'He said that?'

'It got worse,' said Ron.

'How much worse can it get?' said Arabella, rubbing her forehead.

'He said Dad was an idiot to run around with Dumbledore, that Dumbledore was heading for trouble and Dad was going to go down with him, and he – Percy – knew where his loyalties lay and it was with the Ministry. And if Mum and Dad were going to become traitors to the Ministry he was going to make sure everyone knew he didn't belong to our family anymore. And he packed his bags the same night and left. He's living her in London now.'

'Shit,' whispered Arabella. She liked Percy the least out of all of the Weasleys, but she never could imagine him doing something like this to his own family. 'But Percy knows Voldemort's back, right? I mean, he's not stupid. Nobody would go around saying things like this if they didn't see it with their own eyes.'

'Percy takes the Daily Prophet very seriously,' said Ron. '_Very seriously_. Yours and Harry's names haven't been getting a very good reputation lately. Not that you can help it with yours.'

'Gee, thanks Ron,' said Arabella sarcastically.

'Well, you know what –'

'Yes, I know, I know,' said Arabella, waving it off. 'Keep going.'

'Yeah, well, Percy's said that the only evidence was yours and Harry's word, and well… he doesn't think they're good enough. The Daily Prophet hasn't been very nice to Harry lately and Percy's never really liked you. He's never approved of how Mum and Dad's accepted you into the family. He used to be okay with Harry and Hermione though.'

'Hurry up down there!' yelled Sirius's voice from the top of the stairs. 'We're all very thirsty!'

Arabella and Ron grabbed enough butter bears and headed back upstairs in a hurry. They didn't notice the time as they were in the cellar. Sirius was at the top of the stairs waiting for them. He was glaring at Ron just as they reached the landing.

'Do I need to keep an eye out for the two of you?' he said, still glaring at Ron.

Ron snorted before saying, 'It's not me you need to look out for.'

Arabella could have killed him right then and there. 'Shut up,' she hissed at Ron.

Sirius looked between the two of them and then walked back towards the kitchen where everybody was sitting.

'You never talked to him about Harry?' asked Ron.

'I haven't even talked to Harry about Harry,' said Arabella.

They walked back into the kitchen where Mr and Mrs Weasley were talking with Sirius and Remus about the rooms' situation. Tonks and Kingsley were talking to Bill, Fred, George, Ginny and Hermione. Arabella and Ron handed out the butterbears.

'We have some spare rooms,' said Remus, accepting the butterbear. 'Fred and George can share one, and Hermione and Ginny can share one. We tried to put their beds in Arabella's but it got too crowded in one room. Hermione and Ginny's are right beside hers. Ron and Harry are going to share another one, its right across Fred and George's. They're all on the third landing. Yours should be on the second landing.'

Arabella took a seat next to Nymph, who was telling them a story about her time at Hogwarts. Fred and George looked as though they had tears in their eyes. Everyone was laughing at her story.

'– so after years of perfecting it, I finally changed into Dumbledore! You should have seen all their faces! I was talking to a Slytherin – still as Dumbledore – and I asked him whether or not he ironed his socks!' There was a round of laughter as Nymph was trying to catch her breath to continue the story. 'Then – ad this is the kicker! – Dumbledore showed up! The real one! He also sat down beside the kid and started to talk with him too! Imagine that! Two Dumbledores confusing the kid! We then told him about the importance of keeping his socks clean and how hygienic it was!'

Another round of laughter as Fred, George and Ginny were clutching their sides at the mental image.

'So,' said Hermione, turning towards Arabella, still laughing a bit, 'when did you become an Animagus?'

'A week or so ago,' said Arabella, shrugging.

'So, you're a dog, or was it a wolf?' asked Ron.

'A coyote,' said Sirius proudly, listening in on their conversation.

'Wicked,' said Fred and George together with a mischievous smile.

'I suppose you're not going to register as an official Animagus, right?' said Hermione sceptically.

'Not with Fudge as the Minister, no,' said Arabella. She didn't really think she was ever going to register as an official on ever. She didn't trust the Ministry, and, by the looks of it, they didn't trust her either.

'You have a name for your coyote yet?' said Nymph.

'Alala,' said Arabella. 'It means war-like,' she added, looking at their confused faces.

'Arabella,' said Remus, interrupting their conversation and looking at her. 'Why don't you show them where they're going to sleep?'

'Okay,' said Arabella, getting up.

'Anyway,' said Nymph, smiling at her, also getting up, 'gotta go. Mum's making Lamb chops.'

'Lamb chops,' Arabella moaned sadly. 'Moony, can I –?'

'No,' said Remus sternly. 'You can't leave this house. You know why.'

Sadly, Arabella did. If she stepped foot out of the house, there is a very high chance of one or more Death Eaters catching her. The only time she went outside was when she and Remus went to get some food, and then met Abel. Remus and Sirius have been very strict about the security on the house and added more spells with the ones her grandfather had already put up.

'Wait a minute,' said Fred, holding up both of his hands, 'what did you just call him?'

'Moony. Why?'

Fred and George's eyes went as wide as they could have possible get. They were like big saucers and were looking at Remus in pure admiration. Nobody, save Arabella, Ron and Hermione, knew what was going on.

'You're Moony,' said Fred, pointing his finger at him.

'You're _the _Moony,' said George, also pointing his finger at Remus.

Remus looked at Arabella in a 'are you freaking kidding me' look.

'Seriously, you never told _them_?' asked Remus.

Arabella shrugged.

'That means,' said Fred, turning his finger at Sirius, who was smiling at their antics, 'you're –'

'Padfoot, yes,' said Sirius, still smiling.

Fred and George looked at each other before getting down on their knees, bowing while chanting 'We are not worthy, we are not worthy, we are scum, we are scum!'

Arabella and Sirius shared a look. _They've seen nothing yet_ she thought. Everyone was looking back and forth between Fred and George, and Sirius and Remus. Nobody really knew what was going on.

'You!' said Fred, looking at Arabella.

'Me,' she said calmly.

'Why didn't you tell us?' said George.

'Your father and godfather! Honestly woman, how many secrets do you have?' said Fred.

Arabella rolled her eyes before walking out of the kitchen and up the stairs with Hermione, Ginny and Ron. Fred and George caught up to them a couple moments later.

'Sorry,' they said in union.

Arabella waved them off before showing them were their rooms were. Fred, George and Ginny went to go unpack while Hermione and Ron followed her into her room.

'Here,' said Arabella, opening the chest box and giving the letter Kassandra wrote to her to Hermione. 'All the secrets revealed.'

Wordlessly, Hermione opened the letter with Ron reading over her shoulder, and they read it quietly together. They didn't say anything for half an hour. They're expression kept on changing and looked as though they wanted to say something but stopped as they saw the look on Arabella's face.

When they finished, Hermione gave Arabella a big hug.

'Oh, Arabella,' she said into her hair. Ron was rubbing the back of her shoulder in comfort.

'Er, I'm fine you know,' said Arabella awkwardly.

'Oh, we know,' said Hermione, letting go of her. 'Do you want to talk about it?'

'No,' said Arabella.

'Are you sure?' Hermione persisted. 'Well, after the thing with Cedric we thought –'

'I said I don't want to talk about it,' snapped Arabella, getting up for her bed abruptly. 'It's getting late. The both of you must be tired after travelling here. You should go sleep.'

Hermione and Ron were taken back by the forcefulness in her voice, but nodded sadly and left the room. Arabella picked up her pillow and screamed into it.

She didn't want to talk about it. She didn't want to talk about any of it. Sirius and Remus have tried to talk to her about what happened with happened in the graveyard. She thought it was really hypocritical of them. They were willing to talk about the rebirth of Voldemort, but couldn't even talk about Kassandra and the other Arabella. After a while, they had a silent agreement. If they were willing to talk about what happened that night, they should be willing enough to talk about her mother's past with her aunt.

There was a knock on the door and Sirius popped his head in.

'If you want to talk about what happened in the graveyard, save it,' snapped Arabella. 'You're wasting your breath.'

'I wasn't going to talk about that,' said Sirius, frowning at her tone of voice. 'I just wanted to say goodnight.'

'Sorry,' mumbled Arabella, looking guilty.

Sirius waved it off.

'You okay?'

'I'm fine.'

Sirius sighed. 'If you want to talk, I'm here. I'll always be here to listen to you, you know that right?'

Arabella nodded.

'Okay then, good night,' said Sirius.

Before he could turn around and walk out the door, Arabella got up and hugged him with such force that he almost fell over. He was shocked for a moment before returning the hug. Besides Remus, hugs from Sirius were one of her favorite things. It was as though she belong there. They were warm, comforting. It almost made her choke up.

'Thank you,' Arabella whispered. Sirius smiled.

They stayed like that for a while until Arabella let go of him and Sirius went to bed after giving her a kiss on the forehead and a last smile.

* * *

'Oi, Arabella, wake up!' said Ron shaking her.

'Igettinup,' Arabella mumbled, turning over.

'You're turn,' said Ron to Hermione, who rolled her eyes.

Hermione grabbed Arabella's ankle from under the blanket. With one big tug, she fell to the floor.

'Hey!' shouted Arabella from the floor. 'No need for such violence!'

'Breakfast's ready,' said Hermione. 'We're all waiting for you. Sirius is waiting for you.'

Arabella had almost forgotten about their plan. Hermione and Ron left the room and Arabella got dressed quickly and slipped the little potion bottle into her pocket. She walked downstairs and into the kitchen where everyone was eating breakfast and Mrs Weasley was in the kitchen. She noticed that Fred and George were patiently waiting for another serving of bacon and eggs from her.

Arabella went to where Mrs Weasley to get some coffee. she took out a mug and poured some for herself, patiently waiting for Mrs Weasley to finish cooking up the eggs.

'Good morning Arabella,' said Mrs Weasley, smiling at her. 'Could you take these to Fred and George?' she asked pointing at the eggs and bacon on the table top. 'I've got to start on some for Ron and Bill. Thank you, dear.'

Arabella nodded, trying not to show the glee trying to show on her face. She set her cup down and saw at the corner of her eyes that Fred and George were having a conversation with Sirius. Mrs Weasley was too busy cooking food and the rest weren't paying much attention to her. She quietly slipped the potion from her pocket and put three drops on top of both their eggs. The potion immediately dissolved and blending on top of the eggs.

Arabella picked both the plates up and made her way to the end of the table, set them down and took a seat next to Sirius, nudging his foot discreetly. He had a camera on his lap. They planned this down very carefully, not forgetting anything.

Arabella, Sirius, Fred and George made small talk as the twin eat their breakfast. Sirius and Arabella were watching them like hawks. Remus kept glancing at the twin to while he was talking to Mr Weasley.

A couple minutes after the twins finished their food, Sirius and Arabella noticed little changes happening to them. First, Fred's voice started to get a little high pitched. Then, George's hair became a little longer. Within a few moments, their chests started to expand a bit.

Fred and George didn't know what was going on. They kept looking at their bodies in silent horror. Everyone else was wondering what was going on. Mrs Weasley was watching them in utter fear as everyone was looking confused.

'Ahhhh!' screamed Fred and George in union as the potion worked its magic.

They were girls.

Fred and George Weasley transformed into girls.

Frederica and Georgia Weasley were now sitting in front of them.

Everybody was silent for a moment before the silence was broken by Arabella and Sirius, laughing like mad people.

'Arabella! Sirius! Change them back!' yelled Mrs Weasley.

'Can't,' Arabella choked out, clutching on to Sirius's shoulders.

Sirius was trying to tell her something, but couldn't get the words out as he looked back at Frederica and Georgia.

'I think what Arabella and Sirius are trying to say is that the potion only wears off after a day,' said Remus, amused.

'Fascinating,' said Mr Weasley, impressed by the potion.

Bill, Ron, Ginny and Hermione were openly staring at the twins with their mouths open. Frederica and Georgia were staring at their bodies and poking at them.

'Well,' said Frederica after a long time, looking at his breasts, 'I wouldn't mind having these.'

Georgia cupped both of them and started to jiggle them up and down. Frederica started to do that with his own, making Sirius and Arabella laugh even harder.

'George! Fred! Stop playing with yourselves!' said Mrs Weasley, a bit horrified with their actions.

* * *

After breakfast, they got some real good pictures of the twins and Mrs Weasley managed to calm down a bit and even found it a bit amusing. Frederica and Georgia didn't mind being females. They actually loved it, especially the breasts. They couldn't stop playing with them.

Arabella took them on a very short tour of the house, and they met Kreacher. Ron, Ginny, Frederica and Georgia didn't like him, especially after Kreacher called them blood-traitors and Hermione a Mudblood. Hermione tried to reason with them in saying that Kreacher was old and was out of his mind, but they still didn't like him. Mrs Weasley made a couple comments about the state of some of the rooms. Sirius and Remus had only cleaned out the kitchen and some of the bedrooms that they were going to be sleeping in.

Later that night, they had to spend the whole time upstairs, waiting for the meeting to finish. Frederica and Georgia wanted to sit in on the meeting, and had a fight with Mrs Weasley about it. She told them that they were too young, and they should just focus on their studies.

Arabella understood Frederica and Georgia. She also wanted to join the Order. She wanted to fight. Fight for a better future and for her family. She's been though more in her fifteen year than half of members in their whole life. She asked Remus and Sirius, but they both told her that she was too young, and that they had it under control. So far, nothing was done. She tried to see it her way. She's lost everybody to Voldemort and his Death Eaters. She had more a conviction to fight than the other did. She would fight for justice. Justice for her lost family that she would never get to know. She tried to persuade them, but they didn't budge.

Arabella told them what the Order was and who she knew was in it. They were shocked to hear that Snape was on their side. Frederica and Georgia showed Arabella the invention that they've made. They called them Extendable Ears. They've tried to listen in on the conversation, but apparently Mrs Weasley had put an Imperturbable Charm on the door.

'She nearly went berserk when she saw one of these at the house,' said Frederica. 'But it was worth a shot.'

'I've been waiting to hear what Snape's been telling them,' said Arabella, sighing.

They staying upstairs until Mrs Weasley came in and said that the meeting was over. Frederica and Georgia Apparated down as the others walked and saw some of the members walking out of the kitchen. Snape ignored them and walked right pass to the front door.

Nymph, Kingsley, and Mad-Eye were all staying for dinner as Mrs Weasley made French Onion Soup with freshly made bread. They were all having a nice meal with Frederica and Georgia trying to get some information out of Bill about what happened during the meeting. He just shook his head and laughed at the two of them.

'Snape said anything to you?' asked Arabella to Sirius.

'Only about how he was out there risking his neck while I sit inside pretending to be a housewife,' said Sirius bitterly.

Arabella gave him a sympathetic smile as the front door opened. Nobody was supposed to come visit them at this time. Sirius, Remus, Mr Weasley, Mad-Eye and Kingsley immediately drew their wands and walked towards the front door. Mrs Weasley gave Frederica and Georgia stern looks just as they were about to follow them. Arabella heard some quiet hushed whisperings and a couple loud shouts before Sirius, Remus, Mad-Eye and Kingsley walked back into the kitchen, each looking just as grave as the other.

'What happened?' asked Arabella just as they entered. 'Where's Mr Weasley?'

'He went to go write a letter to Harry,' said Remus. 'Apparently he's been caught using the Patronus Charm and is now expelled form Hogwarts.'

'It must be a mistake,' said Arabella at once. 'Harry wouldn't do something like that. He knows it against the rules to use magic outside of school.'

'Dumbledore's trying to sort this all right now,' said Sirius, a bit angry. 'He's heading to the Ministry right now. We'll know what going on by tomorrow morning.'

'When is Harry getting here?' asked Arabella. She's been meaning to ask this for a while, but never got around to doing it.

'We don't know,' said Remus.

'What do you mean you don't know?' said Arabella. 'Are you saying you had no idea when Harry was coming to stay with us? Were you just going to leave him there? Were you just going to leave him with the Dursleys the whole summer? Does his safety mean so little that –'

'His safety means everything to us,' snapped Sirius, standing up. 'Privet Drive is one of the safest places for him right now. Until this is all sorted out, he is going to stay there.'

'He should have been with us ever since summer's started,' said Arabella, matching his tone and also standing up. 'He should have been here weeks ago. He should have been here by now. If he was all of it could have been prevents. He wouldn't be expelled.'

'Dumbledore's trying to sort out everything at the Ministry,' said Sirius, bitterly. 'All we can do now is wait.'

'That's all we've been doing,' said Arabella, hotly. 'Harry's still stuck there because we've been waiting. If the Order had actually done something instead of –'

'Enough!' snapped Sirius, looking furious at Arabella, who matching his gaze. 'Up to bed, all of you. It's getting late. There'll be no more discussion on this. Now.'

Arabella stomped out the kitchen and up the stairs to her room.

**Thank you for reading!**


	6. Confrontation

**disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, just Arabella. Hope you like it!**

Confrontation

Arabella walked into her room and shut the door with a loud bang that she was sure reached down to the kitchens. She kicked the door and punched it before sitting down on her bed. Her hands were clasped together as her fingers were fumbling with each other. She was taking deep breaths, even though she wanted to throw something at the wall. Something breakable at the wall.

She felt a bit bad that she yelled at Sirius, somewhat. She felt more bad for Harry. She actually felt guilty. She didn't really think of him during the summer. She was so caught up getting to know Sirius that he temporarily slipped off her mind.

But hearing that the Order was doing nothing to bring Harry here nearly made her blood boil. She didn't know much about Harry's life at the Dursleys, but she knew enough to know that he didn't like them and the feeling was mutual. For Merlin's sakes, they put bars on his window!

The door opened in a big rush and Sirius came in, looking furious. The door was still open as he began to speak.

'First of all, you have no right to question how much we care about Harry's safety. And second, the Order is doing everything that we can to –'

'No, you're not!' said Arabella, standing up and facing him. 'If the Order was doing something, Harry would be here right now!'

'He is safe where he is! Dumbledore is doing everything he can to –'

'Is this why she asked for a mission? Is that how things get done in the Order? You have to wait for something to go horrible wrong before something gets done?' Arabella asked abruptly.

Sirius looked even more furious, if it was possible. He looked as though he wanted to punch the wall.

'Your mother –'

'You mean your wife,' said Arabella, feeling as though she was slightly winning this argument. 'Have you forgotten her and can now only called her my mother? Do you even love her? Do you even remember –'

'Enough!' snapped Sirius very loudly. Arabella was sure that her grandmother's portrait would probably be hearing them by now. 'I never forgot her. She will always be my wife, no matter what. I love her –'

'Really?' said Arabella, faking curiosity. 'Because, if I can remember correctly, when you love someone, you should really be talking about them more. So, with all the information that I have gathered in the last couple of weeks, you don't give a –'

'I love her,' snapped Sirius, fuming. He was taking some deep breaths while he was gripping the edge of her wardrobe very tightly. His knuckles were turning white. 'I love her. I have always loved her. Just like how I love you. _My wife_ asked for the mission because she wanted justice for your aunt. My sister-in-law. My sister.'

'You never even talk about either one of them,' said Arabella, matching his tone of voice.

'And you never talk about what happen at the graveyard,' Sirius shot back.

Arabella was a bit taken back, but should have seen it coming. Sirius and Remus have been subtly mentioning the graveyard, but Arabella's been mostly ignoring them. This was one time too many.

'You wanna talk about what happened there?' asked Arabella, shaking furiously with her arms crossed over her chest. Her fists were clenched very tightly as her nails were slightly breaking the skin on her palms. 'Fine, I saw Cedric killed in front of me by Wormtail, who betrayed Harry's parents and is also the reason why you were in Azkaban. I saw Voldemort's rebirth. I saw all the cowardly Death Eaters that chicken out because they weren't even loyal enough to go to jail for their "Master". I saw Harry and Voldemort duel while I just sat there next to Cedric's body, watching –'

'I know what happened there,' said Sirius, cutting in sharply. 'I want to know how you felt about it. I want you to talk about –'

'I felt like shit!' Arabella yelled at him. 'I felt pathetic! I did nothing! I did nothing while I saw someone die! I felt just as pathetic and low as I did when I saw my mother, _your wife_, get tortured in front of my own eyes! But no, this was worse! At least back then I didn't know any magic! I was just three! I'm a fully grown witch, who's had four years of education from Hogwarts and has been friends with Alastor _freaking_ Moody for the past twelve years! And I did nothing! I let myself get fooled by Barty Crouch Jr., that asshole who tortured my mother. I let him take my wand, break my arm, break my ankle and kidnap me. So, you want to know how I feel? I feel like shit. I hate myself more than I hate Voldemort or Crouch right now because I'm weak and pathetic.'

Arabella ended with a huff and sat down on the edge of her bed. She slowly slid down until she was sitting down on the carpet. She was staring at her hands that were on her lap. She felt even more low after realizing that everyone in the house heard her.

Whatever Sirius was expecting, that wasn't it. He looked guilty as he was trying to form some words to say to her. In the end, he took a seat in front of her on the ground and held on to her hands.

'Look at me,' said Sirius softly, trying to catch her gaze. 'You are not weak, and you most certain are not pathetic. Whatever happened with the Diggory boy was not your fault. Nobody knew what was going to happen, certainly not you. You did not let yourself get kidnapped; it was not your fault. Nobody knew who he truly was.'

He let go of Arabella's hands and cupped her head lightly. Grey eyes met grey eyes as Arabella and Sirius stared at each other for a moment.

'You are named after two people that I love very dearly. You were named after your mother, my wife, who I love more than life. She kept me in line and had a strong will. She did what she did because she believed in justice and doing the right thing. You were also named after your aunt, my sister. She was fun, loving and enjoyed life to the fullest. When she died, everything changed, but we never forgot her. I love her, I love your mother, and I love you. You are not weak or pathetic. You are your mother and you are your aunt, and they were certainly not weak or pathetic people.'

'You just talked about them,' said Arabella softly, slightly amazed.

'Yeah, well, it was easier after I started,' said Sirius, shrugging. 'The Order is not making some rash decision about Harry's safety. The last time that happened, we lost many people, including Arabella and Kassandra. It's better this way.'

Arabella nodded, understanding.

'When Harry coming here?' she whispered.

'Four days, tops,' said Sirius, moving next to her. 'He'll be here soon, don't worry.'

'I miss him,' said Arabella, truthfully. She admitted to herself that she really didn't think about him during the summer. Though she did feel guilty, she really missed Harry. She missed everything about there was to him. She couldn't wait to see him again.

'By the way, what's going on between the two of you?' said Sirius very seriously.

'Nothing,' said Arabella quickly.

'Do I need to keep an eye out for the two of you?' asked Sirius.

Arabella chuckled and Sirius smiled. They sat there is silence as Arabella was figuring out how to approach the next subject.

'I want to join the Order,' said Arabella.

'You were just criticizing the Order,' said Sirius, looking at her as though she was mad. 'Why the sudden change of heart?'

Arabella shrugged. 'I have more to fight for than the others do.'

'You do,' Sirius agreed, 'but not now. Maybe when you're older. You're too young, and it's dangerous. Just try to live a peaceful life or something now.'

Arabella laughed as someone knocked at the door. Hermione was standing in front of them, looking uncertain as she was holding two pieces of parchment in her hands.

'Um, Harry sent this for the both of you,' said Hermione, walking towards them cautiously holding the letters out. She walked out of the room slowly, as though she was scared of being caught in whatever they were yelling about.

The opened their letters, which held identical messages:

_I've just been attacked by Dementors and I might be expelled from Hogwarts. I want to know what's going on and when I'm going to get out of here. _

'We have to write back to him,' said Arabella, standing up and getting some parchment and ink from her bedside table.

'You can't,' said Sirius, getting and holding on her arm, stopping her movements. 'The owls could get intercepted by someone.'

'But Harry has to hear something from us,' insisted Arabella. 'He's going to go crazy if he doesn't at least hear from us.'

'We can't,' said Sirius. 'Wait until Harry gets here before you tell him anything. It'll be safer if you tell him face to face rather than write it in a letter.'

Arabella admitted that he was right rather reluctantly. She nodded as they heard the front door open very loudly. They didn't hear her grandmother's shrieking voice, but went downstairs all the same. It was Albus Dumbledore, and he looked very scary. He was standing in the corridor as Sirius and Arabella descended down the stairs. The Weasleys, Hermione, Remus, Kingsley, Nymph and Mad-Eye were also in the corridor, waiting for Dumbledore to speak.

'Harry has a disciplinary hearing on the twelfth at nine am,' said Dumbledore. 'Now, Arabella, Hermione, Ron Sirius, have you gotten any letters from Harry?'

They four of them nodded.

'Don't write back to him,' he said gravely. 'The owl could get intercepted. I know the four of you want to write back and tell him what's going on, but it's took risky. Better to tell him face to face rather than in a letter.'

'But professor,' said Hermione, 'Harry's has to know something. He's going to do something irrational if he's –'

'Promise me, Miss Granger,' said Dumbledore severely. 'The four of you, and the rest, promise me that you won't tell Harry anything until he comes here. Promise me.'

Arabella and Sirius nodded, as well as Hermione and Ron.

'Now, where is Mundungus Fletcher?' he asked, in a low voice that Arabella was scared of immediately.

Behind Kingsley and Mad-Eye raised a short shaky hand slowly. Arabella had to admit that he had some guts to show his face here after what he did. Mrs Weasley told all the kids to go upstairs and get ready for bed, obviously trying to shield them from Dumbledore's fury towards Mundungus.

'Why's he mad at Mundungus?' asked Ron.

'He was supposed to watch Harry, make sure he was safe,' said Arabella. 'Probably left his post early or something. He's a bit of an idiot.'

Arabella yawned and stretched before putting both of her arms around Ron and Hermione's shoulders, drawing them close to her.

'Harry's coming soon,' she said. 'Four days, tops.'

'You okay?' asked Hermione, looking at her with concern. 'There was a lot of shouting going on, especially since the door was open the whole time.'

'Yeah, me and Sirius sorted it all out,' said Arabella. 'Everything's fine.'

Everything was close to being fine, which was okay by her.

* * *

The next four days passed by very quickly for Arabella. She kept herself busy with Hermione, Ron, Ginny, Fred and George.

The house kept having meetings every night. They were all supposed to stay upstairs and mind their own business, but that wasn't happening anytime soon. Fred and George had tried to sit in on a couple meetings, but Mrs Weasley won in the end. They tried to use their Extendable Ear to listen in, but Mrs Weasley had put some charm on the doors, so they really knew nothing.

During the day, they had mostly tried to clean up the rest of the house, but not much was done. There was mostly the drawing room that needed to be clean. The rest of the house was either clean, or the room didn't matter.

Arabella found herself spending most of her time in the room where the family tree was. She didn't know why, but she was fascinated with all the names of her family. She knew that more than half of them were either crazy or really believed in the whole pureblood mania, but she just liked to sit there and look at all of their names. She knew the ones that were disowned for some reason or another. Eduardus Limette Black was disowned for some reason. Isla Black was disowned for marrying Bob Hitchens, a Muggle. Phineas Black was disowned for supporting Muggle rights. Marius Black, he was a Squid. Cedrella Black, marrying Septimus Weasley. Alphard Black, for giving money to Sirius. Sirius, for running away from home. Andromeda Black, for marrying Ted. She was actually surprised to see her name on the tapestry. A single line was connected to Sirius's burnt mark with her first and last name.

That actually confused her feelings about her grandmother. On one hand, Walburga certainly felt something for Arabella, enough to add her name to the family tree, and she did actually want to get to know Arabella. But on the other hand, she was obviously displeased that Arabella didn't want to visit her anymore after the first one, and the fact that Arabella didn't believe in any of her beliefs, but she didn't blast Arabella off the family tree. It was a bit confusing until Nymph tripped again on the umbrella stand, waking up her grandmother. How could she forget her grandmother's lovely voice?

'Tonks!' scolded Mrs Weasley.

'Sorry! I'm sor –!'

'Filthy half-bloods! Vermin! How dare you step foot into the House of Blacks?! How dare you –'

Arabella changed into Alala quickly and ran towards the portrait, but kept a short distance away. There was just enough distance for Walburga to see her. Alala bared her teeth and gave a deep, low growl. Walburga stopped her rant mid-way and the curtains closed very quickly together.

Alala changed into Arabella, who was glaring at Nymph before walking back to the family room.

'Well, that was effective,' muttered Nymph.

Today was the day that Nymph, Mad-Eye, Remus, Kingsley, Emmeline Vance, Elphias Doge, Dedalus Diggle, Hestia Jones and Sturgis Podmore were going to go to Privet Drive to get Harry. Sirius told her this after the meeting that was held the next day after the Dementor incident. He's been telling Arabella things that were happening at the meetings, but nothing too big. He was waiting for Harry to come so he can tell them both the other things.

Arabella was very excited for Harry to finally get here. She's been a bit giddy, but trying to tone it done. She's actually been a bit self-cautious. She keeps checking herself in the mirror, even though she's never really done something like that. Her body hasn't changed very much. She's grown a couple inches, but is still considered short. Her hair was the same length, ending mid-way through her back. It was still a very dark brown colour, and there were still many knots in them, though she never really bothered to comb her hair. Most of her baby fat was gone, though there were still some around her hip area. Her skin was still tanned, but a bit lighter than before. The thought of Harry kept making her check herself in the mirror, and she slightly hated him for that. Just slightly.

'Hey,' said Remus softly from the frame of the door. 'You okay?'

'Yeah, why?'

'You've been spending a lot of time in this room lately.'

'It's interesting, that's all.'

'Anyway, we're heading off soon,' said Remus. 'We're going to go pick Harry up. We'll be back in an hour or two. Do try to behave yourself.'

'No promises,' said Arabella, smiling at him.

Remus smiled before heading to the front of the door. Their relationship was still the same. He knew what she and Sirius were yelling about that night, and has tried to talk about the other Arabella, but it wasn't very easy for him. He's been opening up slowly. So far, Arabella knows that she also liked chocolate and that her favourite colour was green. It was a long process, but he was opening up. In a way, she understands he reluctance in not talking about the other Arabella, but other times she just wants to shake him and find out as much as she can.

'Arabella,' came in Mrs Weasley, 'there's a meeting's going to start now.'

Arabella nodded understanding. She got up and walked upstairs to Ron's room where he and Hermione were. All she could do now is to wait for Harry.

**Thank you for reading! Next one will have Harry, I promise! I just really wanted to show Arabella and Sirius fighting. **


	7. Harry Arrives

**disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, just Arabella. Hope you like it!**

Harry Arrives

The door to Ron's room opened and Arabella caught sight of Harry just before Hermione shrieked and pulled Harry into a hug that nearly knocked him over.

'HARRY! Arabella, Ron, he's here, Harry's here! We didn't hear you arrive! Oh, how _are _you? Are you all right? Have you been furious with us? I bet you have – but we couldn't tell you anything, Dumbledore made us swear we wouldn't, h, we've got so much to tell you, and you've got to tell us – the Dementors! When we heard – and that Ministry hearing – it's outrageous, I've looked it all up, they can't expel you, they just can't, there provision in the Decree for the Restriction of Underage Sorcery for the use of magic in life-threatening situations –'

'Let him breathe, Hermione,' said Ron, grinning, closing the door behind Harry.

Hermione let go of him, but before she could say anything else, there was a soft whooshing sound and Hedwig landed gently on Harry's shoulders.

'Hedwig!'

Hedwig clicked her beak and nibbled his ear affectionately as Harry stroked her feathers.

'She's been in a right state,' said Ron. 'Pecked us half to death when she brought your last letters, look at this –'

He showed Harry the index finger of his right hand, which displayed a half healed but clearly deep cut. Arabella tried to avoid Hedwig as much as possible when Hermione told her about it.

'Oh yeah,' said Harry. 'Sorry about that, but I wanted answers, you know…'

'We wanted to give them to you mate,' said Ron. 'Hermione was going spare, she said that you'd do something stupid if you were stuck all on your own without news, but Dumbledore made us –'

'– swear not to tell me,' said Harry. 'Yeah, Hermione's already said.'

There was a silence that followed him as Arabella sat on the spare bed, watching him. He was stroking Hedwig, though rather mechanically. He wasn't looking at either one of them, and didn't even notice that Arabella was in the room.

'He seemed to think it was best,' said Hermione rather breathlessly, glancing at Arabella. 'Dumbledore, I mean.'

'Right,' said Harry.

'I think he thought you were safest with the Muggles –' Ron began.

'Yeah?' said Harry, raising his eyebrows. 'Have either of you been attacked by Dementors this summer?'

_Do crazy step-grandfathers count?_ Arabella thought, thinking back to that day when she met Abel.

'Well no – but that's why he's had people from the Order of the Phoenix tailing you all the time –'

'Didn't work that well, though, did it?' said Harry. 'Had to look after myself after all, didn't I?'

'He was angry,' said Hermione. 'Dumbledore. We saw him. When he found out Mundungus had left before his shift ended. He was scary.'

'Well, I'm glad he left,' said Harry coldly. 'If he hadn't, I wouldn't have done magic and Dumbledore would probably have left me at Privet Drive all summer.'

'Aren't you… aren't you worried about the Ministry of Magic hearing?' said Hermione quietly.

'No,' said Harry, obviously lying.

'Bullshit,' said Arabella, watching him like a hawk.

Harry jumped slightly, not noticing her before. He looked a bit happy, but that quickly faded away and he now just looked mad at her.

'Why's Dumbledore been so keen to keep me in the dark?' Harry asked, looking at her. 'Did you even bother to ask him at all?'

'We wanted to tell you what was going on,' said Ron. 'We did, mate. But he's really busy now, we've only seen him once since we came here and he didn't have much time, he just made us promise not to tell you anything until you came here –'

'He could still've kept me informed if he'd wanted to,' Harry said shortly. 'You're not telling me he doesn't know ways to send messages without owls.'

'He didn't want you to know anything.'

'Maybe he thinks I can't be trusted,' said Harry.

'Don't be thick,' said Ron.

'Or that I can't take care of myself –'

'Of course he doesn't think that!' said Hermione anxiously.

'So how come I have to stay at the Dursleys' while the three of you get to join in everything that's going on here?' said Harry. 'How come you three are allowed to know everything that's going on -?'

'We're not!' Ron interrupted. 'Mum won't let us near the meetings, she says we're too young –'

'SO YOU HAVEN'T BEEN IN THE MEETINGS, BIG DEAL! YOU'VE STILL BEEN HERE, HAVEN'T YOU? YOU'VE STILL BEEN TOGETHER! ME, I'VE BEEN STUCK AT THE DURSELYS' FOR A MONTH! AND I'VE HANDLED MORE THAT THE THREE OF YOU'VE EVER MANAGED AND DUMBLEDORE KNOWS IT – WHO SAVED THE PHILOSOPHER'S STONE? WHO GOT RID OF RIDDLE? WHO SAVED YOUR SKINS FROM THE DEMENTORS?'

'That's really unfair, considering I was with you the whole time,' said Arabella, but Harry ignored her.

'WHO HAD TO GET PAST DRAGONS AND SPHINXES AND EVERY OTHER FOUL THING LAST YEAR? WHO SAW HIM COME BACK? WHO HAD TO ESCAPE FROM HIM? ME!'

Ron was standing there with his mouth half-open, clearly stunned and at a loss for words. Hermione looked like she was on the verge of tears. Arabella just kept on watching him, waiting for him to finish his rant.

'BUT WHY SHOULD I KNOW WHAT'S GOING ON? WHY SHOULD ANYONE BOTHER TO TELL ME WHAT'S BEEN HAPPENING?'

'Harry, we wanted to tell you, we really did –' Hermione began.

'CAN'T'VE WANTED TO THAT MUCH, CAN YOU, OR YOU'D HAVE SENT ME AN OWL, BUT _DUMBLEDORE MADE YOU SWEAR –'_

'Well, he did –'

'FOUR WEEKS I'VE BEEN STUCK IN PRIVET DRIVE, NICKING PAPERS OUT OF BINS TO TRY AND FIND OUT WHAT'S BEEN GOING ON –'

'We wanted to –'

'I SUPPOSE YOU'VE BEEN HAVING A REAL LAUGHT, HAVEN'T YOU –'

'SHUT UP!' snapped Arabella, getting up from the bed, and facing Harry, furious. He was matching her gaze, waiting for her to say something.

'First of all, we weren't laughing at you. We've actually worried about you. Bet that shocks you, doesn't it? Second, you're not the only one who witnessed Voldemort return. Must have slipped your mind, but I was there too. You were probably drowning in your own self-pity to forget that I was tied up there, just like you. I was there when we faced the Dementors; I was there when we saved Ginny from Riddle. I was there when you saved the Philosopher's Stone. I stood in between you and Voldemort because I cared about you, in case you forgot. We're sorry, we're all really sorry, but we couldn't –'

'You don't know what it's like to be in the dark about something as big as this,' said Harry through his clenched teeth.

Arabella laughed, but it wasn't humorous. There was nothing funny behind it.

'Oh, yes I have,' said Arabella. 'I know _exactly_ how it feels.'

Harry stood there waiting for her to elaborate, but she didn't say anything further. He glared at her and she glared right back at him. He turned away and started pacing up and down the room.

'What is this place anyway?' he shot at them.

'Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix,' said Ron at once.

'Is anyone going to bother telling me what the Order of the Phoenix -?'

'It's a secret society that Dumbledore founded. It was for the people who fought against Voldemort last time, and now,' said Arabella.

'Who's in it?' said Harry, coming to a halt with his hands in his pockets.

'A few people,' said Ron. 'We've met a couple of them, but we think there are more…'

Harry glared at them.

'_Well_?' he demanded.

'Well, what?' said Ron.

'_Voldemort!_' Harry said furiously, and Ron and Hermione winced. 'What's happening? What's he up to? Where is he? What are we doing to stop him?'

'We've told you, the Order don't let us in on their meetings,' said Hermione nervously. 'So we don't –'

'Some of the members are following known Death Eaters,' said Arabella, remembering what Sirius told her. 'Moony and Nymph were tailing one of them a couple days ago. They're also recruiting more people to the Order, and some of them are standing guard over something. They're always talking about guard duty.'

Most of that was what Sirius told her, except for the guard thing. She was standing at the top of the stairs during one of the meetings, waiting for them to come out, and hoping that one of them would slip up and say something.

'Couldn't have been me, could it?' said Harry sarcastically.

He walked around the room again, looking at anywhere but Arabella, Ron and Hermione. 'So what have you been doing, if you're not allowed in meetings?' he demanded.

'They just got here a couple days ago,' said Arabella. 'We've cleaned out some of the rooms, but Moony and Dad did most of them before school finished. Probably going to do the drawing room – '

'AARGH!' said Hermione as two loud cracks filled the room. Fred and George came out of nowhere and joined Hedwig on top of the wardrobe.

'Stop doing that!' Hermione said weakly.

'Hello, Harry,' said George beaming at him. 'We thought we heard your dulcet tones.'

'Are you fighting again, Lady Arabella?' said Fred, also beaming. 'You don't want to bottle up your anger like that, Harry, let it all out. There might be a couple people fifty miles away who didn't hear you.'

'You two passed your Apparation tests, then?' asked Harry grumpily.

'With distinction,' said Fred, who was holding what looked like a piece of very long, flesh-colored string.

'It would have taken you about thirty seconds longer to walk down the stairs,' said Ron.

'Time is Galleons, little brother,' said Fred. 'Anyway, Harry, you're interfering with reception. Extendable Ears,' he added in response to Harry's raised eyebrows, holding up the string, which tailed onto the landing. 'We're trying to hear what's going on downstairs.'

'It's not going to work,' said Arabella, rolling her eyes. 'Mrs Weasley always puts a spell on the doors.'

'You never know, my lady,' said George, putting his arm around her shoulders. 'Mum could slip up. It's a major meeting they're having.'

The door opened and Ginny appeared.

'Oh hello, Harry!' she said brightly. 'I thought I heard your voice.'

Turning to Fred and George, she said, 'It's a no go with the Extendable Ears, she's put a charm on the kitchen door.'

'That's what I've been saying,' said Arabella, exasperatedly.

'Are you sure?' said George, looking crestfallen.

'Tonks told me how to find out,' said Ginny. 'You just chuck stuff at the door and if it can't make contact the door's been Imperturbed. I've been flicking Dumgbombs at it from the top of the stairs and they just soar away from it, so there's no way the Extendable Ears will be able to get under the gap.'

Fred heaved a deep sigh. 'Shame. I really fancied finding out what old Snape's been up to.'

'Snape?' said Harry quickly. 'Is he here?'

'Yeah,' said George, carefully closing the door and sitting down on one of the beds; Fred and Ginny followed. 'Giving a report. Top secret.'

'Git,' said Fred idly.

'He's on our side now,' said Hermione reprovingly.

Ron snorted. 'Doesn't stop him being a git.'

'Bill doesn't like him either,' said Ginny.

Harry sank on the bed opposite the other while Arabella was leaning against the wardrobe.

'Is Bill here?' Harry asked. 'I thought he was working in Egypt.'

'He applied for a desk job so he could come home and work for the Order,' said Fred. 'He says he misses the tombs, but,' he smirked, 'there are compensations…'

'What d'you mean?'

'Remember old Fleur Delacour?' said George. 'She's got a job at Gringotts to eemprove 'er Eeenglish —'

'— and Bill's been giving her a lot of private lessons,' sniggered Fred.

'Charlie's in the Order too,' said George, 'but he's still in Romania, Dumbledore wants as many foreign wizards brought in as possible, so Charlie's trying to make contacts on his days off.'

'Couldn't Percy do that?' Harry asked.

At these words, all the Weasley, Hermione and Arabella exchanged darkly significant looks.

'Whatever you do, don't mention Percy in front of Mum and Dad,' Ron told Harry in a tense voice.

'Why not?'

'Because every time Percy's name's mentioned, Dad breaks whatever he's holding and Mum starts crying,' Fred said.

'It's been awful,' said Ginny sadly.

'I think we're well shut of him,' said George with an uncharacteristically ugly look on his face.

'What's happened?' Harry said.

'Percy and Dad had a row,' said Fred. 'I've never seen Dad row with anyone like that. It's normally Mum who shouts…'

'It was the first week back after term ended,' said Ron. Percy came home and told us he'd been promoted.'

'You're kidding?' said Harry.

'Yeah, we were all surprised,' said George, 'because Percy got into a load of trouble about Crouch, there was an inquiry and everything. They said Percy ought to have realized Crouch was off his rocker and informed a superior. But you know Percy, Crouch left him in charge, he wasn't going to complain…'

'So how come they promoted him?'

'That's exactly what we wondered,' said Ron. 'He came home really pleased with himself – even more pleased than usual if you can imagine that – and told Dad he'd been offered a position in Fudge's own office. A really good one for someone only a year out of Hogwarts: Junior Assistant to the Minister. He expected Dad to be all impressed, I think.'

'Only Dad wasn't,' said Fred grimly.

'Why not?' said Harry.

'Well, apparently Fudge has been storming round the Ministry checking that nobody's having any contact with Dumbledore,' said George.

'Dumbledore's name's mud with the Ministry these days, see,' said Fred. 'They all think he's just making trouble saying You-Know-Who's back.'

'Dad says Fudge has made it clear that anyone who's in league with Dumbledore can clear their desks,' said George.

'Trouble is, Fudge suspects Dad, he knows he's friendly with Dumbledore, and he's always thought Dad's a bit of a weirdo because of his Muggle obsession –'

'But what's that got to do with Percy?' asked Harry, confused.

'I'm coming to that. Dad reckons Fudge only wants Percy in his office because he wants to use him to spy on the family – and Dumbledore.'

Harry let out a low whistle.

'Bet Percy loved that.'

Ron laughed in a hollow sort of way.

'He went completely berserk. He said – well, he said loads of terrible stuff. He said he's been having to struggle against Dad's lousy reputation ever since he joined the Ministry and that Dad's got no ambition and that's why we've always been – you know – not had a lot of money, I mean –'

'What?' said Harry in disbelief, as Ginny made a noise like an angry cat.

'I know,' said Ron in a low voice. 'And it got worse. He said Dad was an idiot to run around with Dumbledore, that Dumbledore was heading for big trouble and Dad was going to go down with him, and that he — Percy — knew where his loyalty lay and it was with the Ministry. And if Mum and Dad were going to become traitors to the Ministry he was going to make sure everyone knew he didn't belong to our family anymore. And he packed his bags the same night and left. He's living here in London now.'

Harry swore under his breath.

'Mum's been in a right state,' said Ron. 'You know – crying and stuff. She came up to London to try and talk to Percy but he slammed the door in her face. I dunno what he does if he meets Dad at work – probably ignore him, I s'pose.'

'But Percy _must_ know Voldemort's back,' said Harry slowly. He's not stupid, he must know your mum and dad wouldn't risk everything without proof –'

'Percy said the only evidence was yours and Arabella's word, and I dunno… he doesn't think it was good enough,' said Ron.

'Percy takes the Daily Prophet seriously,' said Hermione, and the others nodded.

'What are you all talking about?' Harry asked, looking around at them all.

'Haven't you been getting the Daily Prophet?' Arabella asked.

'Yeah, I have!' said Harry.

'Have you been reading the whole thing?' said Arabella.

'Not cover to cover,' said Harry defensively. 'If they were going to report anything about Voldemort it would be headline news, wouldn't it!'

The others, except Arabella, flinched at the name.

'Well, you need to read it cover to cover to pick it up,' said Hermione, 'but they – um – they mention you a couple times a week.'

'But I's have seen –'

'Not if you're reading the front page, you wouldn't,' said Hermione, shaking her head. 'I'm not talking about big articles. They just slip you in, like you're a standing joke.'

'What d'you — ?'

'It's quite nasty, actually,' said Hermione in a voice of forced calm. 'They're just building on Rita's stuff.'

'But she's not writing for them anymore, is she?'

'Oh no, she's kept her promise — not that she's got any choice,' Hermione added with satisfaction. 'But she laid the foundation for what they're trying to do now.'

'Which is what?' said Harry impatiently.

'They're writing about you as though you're this deluded, attention-seeking person who thinks he's a great tragic hero or something like that,' said Arabella. 'They just keep slipping in comments about you. If some crazy story appears they say something like 'a tale worthy of Harry Potter' and if anyone has a funny accident or anything of the sort, they'd say 'let's hope he hasn't got a scar on his forehead or we'll be asked to worship him next –''

'I don't want anyone to worship –'

'We know you don't,' Arabella snapped. 'We know, Harry. Don't you see what they're doing? They want to turn you into someone nobody in their right minds would believe. Fudge is most likely behind it, he has enough money to buy them. They want wizards on the streets to think you're just some stupid boy who's a joke, who keeps telling ridiculous stories because he loves being famous and wants to keep it going.'

'I didn't ask – I didn't want – _Voldemort killed my parents_!' Harry spluttered. 'I got famous because he murdered my family but couldn't kill me! Who wants to be famous for that? Don't they think I'd rather it's never –'

'We know, Harry,' said Ginny earnestly.

'And of course, they didn't report a word about the Dementors attacking you,' said Hermione. 'Someone's told them to keep that quiet. That should've been a really big story, out-of-control Dementors. They haven't even reported that you broke the International Statute of Secrecy – we though they would, it would tie in so well with this image of you as some stupid show-off – we think they're biding their time until you're expelled, then they're really going to go to town – I mean, if you're expelled, obviously. You really shouldn't be, not if they abide by their own laws, there's no case against you.'

'Uh-oh.'

Fred gave the Extendable Ear a hearty tug; there was another loud crack and he and George vanished. Seconds later, Mrs Weasley appeared in the bedroom doorway.

'The meeting's over, you can come down and have dinner now, everyone's dying to see you, Harry. And who's left all those Dungbombs outside the kitchen door?'

'Crookshanks,' said Ginny. 'He loves playing with them.'

'Oh,' said Mrs Wealsey, 'I thought it might have been Kreacher, he's a bit odd, isn't he? Now don't forget to keep your voices down in the hall. Ginny, your hands are filthy, what have you been doing? Go and wash them before dinner, please…'

Ginny grimaced at the others and followed her mother out of the room, leaving Arabella, Harry, Ron and Hermione alone.

'Look…' Harry muttered, but Ron shook his head, and Hermione said quietly, 'We knew you'd be angry, Harry, we really don't blame you, but you've got to understand, Dumbledore –'

'Yeah, I know,' said Harry. 'Who's Kreacher?'

'My house-elf,' said Arabella.

'Your house-elf?' said Harry. 'So then, this is –'

'My house, yes,' said Arabella, nodding.

'Nutter,' said Ron. 'Never met one like him.'

Hermione frowned at Ron.

'He's not a _nutter_, Ron-'

'He takes orders from my dead grandmother,' said Arabella. 'Is that normal? Taking orders from someone who is dead?'

'Well — well, if he is a bit strange, it's not his fault —'

Ron rolled his eyes at Harry.

'Hermione still hasn't given up on spew —'

'It's not 'spew'!' said Hermione heatedly. 'It's the Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare, and it's not just me, Remus says we should be kind to Kreacher too —'

'Yeah, yeah,' said Ron. 'C'mon, I'm starving.'

He led the way out of the door ad onto the landing, but before they could descend the stairs – 'Hold it!' Ron breathed, flinging out an arm to stop them from walking any further. 'They're still in the hall, we might be able to hear something –'

The four of them looked cautiously over the banisters. The corridor below was packed with witches and wizards. They were all whispering excitedly together. Just below them, they saw Snape. Then they heard the front door open and then close.

'Snape never eats here,' said Arabella. 'Come on, let's go.'

As they passed the row of house-elf heads on the wall they saw Remus, Mrs Weasley, Nymph at the front door, magically sealing it behind those who left.

'We're eating down in the kitchen,' Mrs Weasley whispered meeting them at the bottom of the stairs. 'Harry, dear, if you'll just tiptoe across the hall, it's through this door here –'

CRASH

'Tonks!' cried Mrs Weasley exasperatedly, turning to look behind her.

'I'm sorry!' wailed Nymph, who was lying flat on the floor. 'It's that stupid umbrella –'

But the rest of her words were drowned out by the horrible screeching noise coming from Arabella's dear, sweet grandmother.

Arabella cursed Nymph as Walburga began her rant.

'Filth! Scum! By-products of dirt and vileness! Half-breeds, mutants, freaks, begone from this place! How dare you befoul the house of my fathers –'

'Shut up, you miserable old wretch!' screeched Arabella, matching her grandmother's tone of voice. She began tugging on the curtains. Walburga's glare was now solely on Arabella.

'Half-blood breed! Abomination! Shame of my flesh!'

Arabella got sick and tired of listening to her. She took a couple steps back before changing into Alala. She bared her teeth and gave a massive bark. She leaped forward and scratched the top part of the frame. Walburga gave a loud, ear-splitting scream before the curtains closed by themselves.

'Always effective,' Nymph whispered to Remus.

Alala changed back to Arabella as she rounded off to Nymph, ignoring all the other's frightened looks.

'How many bloody times do I have to remind you to watch where's you're walking?' she nearly shouted at Nymph. 'If it's not this, then it's ringing the doorbell. Honestly, Nymphadora!'

'I'm sorry,' Nymph mumbled.

'You keep missing her face,' said someone from the frame of the door. Sirius was standing there, watching them with a slight smile on his face.

'Yeah, well, if I scratch her face then Kreacher'll die of a heart attack,' said Arabella, shrugging.

'Wouldn't be a bad thing,' Sirius mumbled, before his gazed turned to Harry. 'Hello Harry. I see you've met my mother.'

**Thank you for reading!**


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